Puerta de Paz; Yitzhak Danziger

The Puerta de paz (Door of Peace) is a giant public sculpture made by Yitzhak Danziger for the 1968 Ruta de la Amistad in Mexico City.

The work depicts a broken blue pentagon inter-connected with a yellow quadrangle that reaches some 7.5 meters in height. It was station # 15 on the original route. Yitzhak Danziger (1916–1977) was one of the early members of Canaanite Movement in Israeli art. Born in Berlin in 1916, his family resettled in Jerusalem in 1923. Having studied in London, Danziger took inspiration from the art of  Ancient Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, India, Oceania, and Africa.

The Canaanite movement advocated for a stronger Hebrew Identity based in ancient Semitic heroic myth. Danziger is sometimes credited with introducing a sensuality and Eastern exoticism to the emerging national art of that time. This might be said to result in the Expressionist/Symbolist style seen in the present work.

The Puerta de Paz was restored in 2004 after spending many of decades in isolated abandonment. It was moved a mere 100 meters to distance it from a nearby water tank, and in anticipation of the construction of the Periférico highway. Many of the works in the Friendship Route required much more extensive re-accommodation.The Embassy of Israel in Mexico participated in the 2004 restoration, and later maintenance.