Door in the Beit Castel gallery, created by Yaacov Hadad and Rolly Schaffer
The Beit Castel gallery (House Of Castel), בית קסטל, is a gallery in the Artists' Colony of Safed (Also known as Tzfat or Zefat). The gallery hosts art of a diverse range of artists from the Artists' Quarter of Safed with a special focus on the golden age of art in Safed.
History
Beit Castel used to be the home of the Israeli artist, Moshe Castel whose works are presented in the Vatican and Knesset.[1] Castel was described by Gideon Ofrat in a Jerusalem Post as a singular artist in part due to his Volcanic ash art technique.[1][2] The house, over time decayed was sold by Moshe Castel to his friend Yakov Hadad. Yakov Hadad as a boy was the court boy of Israeli giants such as Yitzhak Frenkel Frenel and Moshe Castel and used to assist others such as Nahum Gutman in order to make a bit of money for his family.[3] Yakov Hadad has since rebuilt the gallery, turning the house itself into what was described by Israeli Channel 1 as a work of art.[4]
The art in the gallery was mostly produced by several well known artists of the quarter such as Yitzhak Frenkel Frenel, Shimshon Holzman, Rolly Schaffer, Moshe Castel, Aaron Yaackobson and others. The art in the gallery is a mixture of modern art from the early 20th century up into the modern day, representing the breadth of modern Jewish art in pre-state Israel and the modern state of Israel.[5]
Ambience
The gallery was described in the Yedioth Ahronot article as having a middle-eastern ambience thanks to its ornate gardens, trees and little courtyards. It contains a wide variety of ancient tools and stone works collected in part by Moshe Castel, Yakov Hadad and other Israeli artists who found those stoneworks among rubble, in the fields or in other locations.[6]
