Yoram Wolberger

Israeli/American, b. 1963

Kneeling Soilder (Study)
2007

Resin, high density polyurethane foam
48 x 72 in.
Gift of Lehman and Lewis Family
2023.4.1

Kneeling Soldier (study) is the first soldier that Yoram Wolberger created and it became a model for subsequent soldiers that were 3D digitally scanned and then digitally sculpted. Text taken from the Brooklyn Museum points up some underlying assumptions concerning how playing with toy soldiers may affect us in subtle ways:

"Take, for example, the toy soldier. When you were a child, perhaps you played with toy soldiers and took comfort in staging many small victories. The toy soldier was so small and our memories are so old that most of us don’t think about the deeper symbolism inherent in an individual toy soldier. However, if you were to walk into the Brooklyn Museum of Art and see the toy soldier had increased in size a hundredfold, what would
occur to you as an adult? What does the toy soldier say about the balance of power between genders? Or the utilitarianism of patriotism in a culture that emphasizes individuality? Or the lines of humanization and dehumanization created by the “Us/Them” paradigm? The imperfections of Wolberger’s pieces encourage us to reflect upon how these seemingly unimportant knickknacks actually play a huge role in shaping our worldviews."

Growing up in the context of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, as Wolberger did, no doubt provides another subtext to consider Kneeling Solider (study). The conflict goes on to this day as evident in this headline for a story printed online in March 2023, “As tensions reach breaking point, Israelis are arming themselves and Palestinians are seeking revenge.”

Wolberger was born in Tel Aviv, Israeli in 1963. Wolberger received his Bachelor of Arts from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design (Jerusalem, Israel) in 1992. In 2001 he graduated with a Masters of Fine Art from the San Francisco Art Institute.

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