Miri Margolin
Miri Margolin was immigrated to Israel with her family and she has lived in Israel ever since.
In July 1976, her nephew, Lieutenant Colonel Yonatan (Yoni) Netanyahu, fell during the Entebbe Rescue Mission. This mission, commanded by Yoni eventually became known as “Yonatan mission”.
Until her nephew’s death in combat, Miri had worked as a ceramic artist, but she now felt an intense desire to eternalize and immortalize Yoni’s image. To realize her wish, she registered for sculpture studies at Tel Aviv’s “Avni” Institute where she studied for some five years. The sculpture of Yoni was her first work in bronze, but this work was soon joined by others. Miri sculpted her second work, a bust of David Ben-Gurion, at the request of the statesman’s daughter, Geula. The sculpture is on display at the Ben-Gurion Libraryat Kibbutz Sde Boker in the Negev.
In 1981, Miri’s first exhibit was held at the Ramat-Gan Municipal Museum. Yitzhak Ofer, sculpture and chairman of the museum’s Art Committee, commented on the exhibit… “A promising sculptures who displays rare talent in the field of portrait art”.
In 1984, Miri sculpted the portrait of actor and sculpture, Anthony Quinn, in the United States. In 1985, she held an exhibit in the American city of New Haven at the “Artists Signature” gallery. On a number of occasions during her stay in the united states, she was intervied omn radio and television programs.
Her second exhibit in Israel took place in 1988 once more at the Ramat-Gan Municipal Museum. At this exhibit, portraits of Yitzhak Shamir (then prime minister) and Shimon Peres (Then Foreign Minister) were also on display. Yitzak Shamir wrote: “ You have invested a great deal of talent, effort and time in your work and the outcome is a vast improvement on the original…” Shimon Peres wrote: “ I deeply admire your creative talent, certainly more than your sculpture’s subject. I can tell that you truly know how to infuse stubborn, solid matter with power and content. Your watchful and confident personality gives this item, like many of your other creative works, a dominance bearing vitality. Standards which creates a new resonance…”
In 1994, Miri was invited to place her sculpture of Raoul Wallenberg – one of the righteous gentiles – on Capitol Hill in Washington, among the statues of the great Freedom Fighters in the worlds.
Over the last few years, Miri Margolin has moved in a new direction: Abstract sculpture, in which she has discovered other creative possibilities and a new expressive quality.