Dalit Lahav-Durst


Dalit L. Durst is an author, translator, curator and art historian of both Israeli and French nationalities. Former chief curator at the M.T. Abraham Foundation and head of the Cultural Exchange and Academic Department at the Hermitage Foundation Israel, she has curated exhibitions in Europe, dedicated to the sculpture of Edgar Degas. In December 2013 she co-curated the exhibition "Edgar Degas: Figures in Motion" at The State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia. In 2016 she curated an exhibition of Degas' 74 bronze sculptures at MGM Art Space in Macau. Lahav-Durst works with a broad range of artists. Fluent in multiple languages, she has co-authored and translated over 15 books.
WWW dalitdurst.com

Early years

Dalit Lahav-Durst was born in 1956, and is of both Israeli and French nationality. She grew up in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where she studied comparative literature at the USP. She later moved to Paris, France, where she focused on art history, criticism, and conservation at New Sorbonne University. Her languages include Hebrew, French, Portuguese, Spanish and English.

Career

Writing

She has worked as an art critic and editor for a number of Hebrew-language newspapers, including Ma'ariv Daily, and she has translated a number of books into Hebrew, including The Immortal by Jorge Luis Borges, O Aleph by Paulo Coelho, Dom Casmurro by Machado de Assis, and ''Tselalim by Manuel Poppe.

Curation, symposiums

;Early years, World War II
Many of her curated exhibits and organized symposiums have involved World War II. In 1996, she organized the "European Meeting of Holocaust Archival Centers", with the participation of historians, archive keepers and researchers from 25 countries. She was curator and artistic events organizer at the Memorial to the Unknown Jewish Martyr and the Jewish Contemporary Documentation Center in Paris. While at the center she worked with artists such as sculptor Shlomo Selinger, and the photographers Ruth Goodwin and William Betsch, among others.
Since 2005, Durst has worked as a consultant and art curator for several private collectors, and was the representative of the Tel-Aviv Foundation in France She also acts a consultant for the CulturalHeritage.cc Foundation. As of 2014 she is Head of the Cultural Exchange and Academic Department at the Hermitage Foundation Israel.
Since June 2008 she has been the chief curator at the M.T. Abraham Foundation. While representing the foundation, she coordinated and supervised the following exhibitions: The Sculpture of Edgar Degas at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel,, The Complete Sculptures of Edgar Degas at the Herakleidon Museum, Athens, Greece,, The Complete Sculptures of Edgar Degas at the National Art Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria, The Complete Sculptures of Edgar Degas at the Varna Archaeological Museum, Bulgaria,, The Sculpture of Edgar Degas at The Evagoras Lanitis Center, Limassol, Cyprus,, Edgar Degas Complete Sculpture at Galerija Klovićevi dvori, Zagreb, Croatia. In 2013 Durst co-curated the Degas in Motion exhibit at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, and also co-authored sections of the illustrated catalog published by Petronius.

Selected works

;Co-Author
;Editor
  • Guide des Archives sur la Shoah
  • Notes from a Coffeehouse
;Translations
Among her literary translations into Hebrew are: