Suggested Rehabilitation of Quarry Wall, from the "Nesher Quarry" series

Itzhak Danziger was in a constant quest for ways of giving artistic expression to the unique qualities of the land of Israel. In the 1930s he was associated with the "Canaanites," a group of artists who regarded the country's pre-biblical roots and peoples as the true source from which to fashion Israeli identity. His 1939 sculpture of the heroic hunter Nimrod – a milestone of modern Israeli art – powerfully expresses this conception. In the last ten years of his life Danziger sought to reclaim for nature what had been destroyed by the demands of an increasingly industrial society, and to restore the ecological balance wherever possible. His most important project, prepared and documented with numerous drawings, was the rehabilitation of the abandoned Nesher quarry near Haifa, where the slopes of Mount Carmel had been scarred by continuous excavation. The drawings show that he suggested to plant trees, bushes, and shrubbery on different parts of the hill. The project took nine months, and by the end of 1971 the stony gap had been transformed into welcoming green land.