Hava Mehutan was born in 1925 in Philadelphia, USA.
She attended the Academy of Fine Arts of Pennsylvania and in 1946 immigrated to Israel with her husband, and was among the founders of Kibbutz Hatzor. In 1950 she moved her family to Be’er Sheva and worked in many capacities in the field of art: as art consultant to the mayor of Be’er Sheva, a member of the National Arts Council, a member of the Tel Aviv Foundation for Literature and Art and a member of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation.
Mehutan also taught sculpture at Haifa University and the Israel Museum. In 1997 she moved to Carmiel, where she still lives today.
Mehutan’s artistic work is varied and multifaceted. Initially, she was close to the New Horizons group, and mainly emphasized the materials from which she made her statues.
In the 60s she gradually moved to abstract sculpture. Ever since her work has been characterized by the recurring investigation of various issues relating to the socio-political reality, the images of the landscape and awareness of the environment.
In 1981 she put on the Lackawanna exhibition at the Haifa Museum, which addressed the environmental destruction by man in Pennsylvania. Later on Mehutan continued to deal with landscapes and to make political art.
Mehutan had many solo exhibitions over the years and has participated in several group exhibitions, has won several major awards, including the São Paulo Biennial prize (1965) and the Dizengoff Prize for Painting and Sculpture (1976).
On a slope descending toward the cliff of the crater, Hava Mehutan laid down two strips of broad, flat stones, with a gap between them, creating a funnel-like shape, which gets smaller toward the cliff edge.
The two stone surfaces on both sides of the funnel are the “Rain Transferor” and are made of rough, unprocessed quarry blocks, which have not been touched either by a machine or by an artists’ hand.
Mehutan usually refrains from giving explanations about her artwork. But here she declares her intention was twofold: to reinforce the terrain leading the rainwater to the foot of the cliff and to attract the attention and curiosity of the visitor by directing him to a path so he can discover the magnificent sight of the crater below.
