Richard Meier Architectural Menorah

In 1985, award-winning architect Richard Meier designed a Hanukkah lamp for an exhibition at the Israel Museum entitled Nerot Mitzvah: Contemporary Ideas for Light in Jewish Ritual. Meier wrote, In the design of the Hanukkah lamp, I was trying to express the collective memory of the Jewish people. Each candleholder is an abstracted representation of an architectural style from significant moments of persecution in the history of the Jews. These are not intended as literal representations of specific events but rather as reminders of the common past and struggles that Jewish people have suffered and their resilience and strength that is so wonderfully captured by the Hanukkah story.An original of this menorah, in tin-coated copper, is in the permanent collection of The Jewish Museum. It has been skillfully reproduced in a limited edition of 500 units in pewter. Meier is an internationally known, award-winning architect celebrated for his designs of such museums as: The Getty Center in Los Angeles, the High Museum in Atlanta and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona, Spain. Meier credits such historic architects as Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright and Meis van der Rohe, as well as Bramante and Bernini, as his influences.