Botanical Zionism at the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life

Special Guest: Dana von Suffrin (LMU-Munich)
Currently on view at The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life is the exhibition “The Secret Language of Flowers. Botanical Drawings from Israel, 1949-1950”. This exhibition is curated by Dr. Francesco Spagnolo. The exhibition displays the works of Shmuel (Samuel) Lerner (1890-1981), a Californian artist born in the Ukraine, who travelled across Israel in the two years following its Declaration of Independence and documented the flora he came across. Our special guest Dana von Suffrin — doctoral candidate in history at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München — will help us contextualize these drawings through her work on botanical Zionism.