Mordecai Ardon 1896-1992

Mr. Theodore Schocken, Scarsdale, NY
Thence by descent to the present owners

Arturo Schwarz, Mordecai Ardon: The Colors of Time, The Israel Museum and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, 2003, p. 23 and illustrated in color, p. 78, pl. 14
Michele Vishny, Mordechai Ardon, New York, no. 69, plate 63

Overall very good condition. Taped around all edges of board. Under UV: No apparent inpainting.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Mordecai Ardon's early work in Germany was comprised mainly of portraiture, figure painting and still life. It is only upon his move to the land of Israel in 1933 that he shifted his focus to landscape painting. These landscapes became the mainstay of his oeuvre and enabled him to convey his painterly coloristic and spiritual vision. His first solo-exhibition took place at the Jewish Museum in New York in 1948. In reviewing the exhibition in which the present lot was exhibited, the renowned art critic, Clement Greenberg recognizes the importance of these landscapes:  '...Bronstein's [Ardon's] chief direction is expressionist, and in his smaller ...canvases there are many reminders of Soutine. However, his best work – especially the apocalyptic and monumental landscapes...displays an expressionism modified by cubism. These paintings are brought to the verge of the abstract by their texture, which consists of a multiplicity of cross-hatched little brushstrokes that create a surface in which shapes dissolve, and underneath whose seeming monotony rhythmic variations of hue and value work powerfully.' (Clement Greenberg quoted in The Nation, March 6, 1948, p.284). These brushstrokes became one of the most identifiable components of Ardon's mature style.  Greenberg goes on to single out Yellow Landscape 'some of his small later landscapes attain to a flat nakedness and pungency of color that takes them beyond expressionism-I think particularly of the "Yellow Landscape" (1946).' (ibid)