Mordecai Ardon 1896-1992

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

New York, The Jewish Museum, The Jewish Museum presents Paintings by M. Ardon-Bronstein, January 22-March 3, 1948, no. 20
London, Marlborough Gallery, Mordechai Ardon (1896-1992) In Memorium, May-June 1995, no. 2, illustrated in color in the catalogue of the exhibition

Michele Vishny, Mordechai Ardon, New York, no. 75, plate 64

Overall very good condition. Under UV: No apparent inpainting. Taped around all edges of board.
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Born in Poland in 1896, Ardon studied at the Bauhaus, Weimer under Itten, Klee, Kandinsky and Feininger. In 1926 he studied painting techniques in Munich under Prof. Max Doerner and between 1929-1933 he taught at the Kunstschule Itten in Berlin before immigrating to Palestine. When the New Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts opened in Jerusalem in 1935, Ardon joined its faculty and after 5 years became its director, continuing to paint while influencing a new generation of artists in Israel.

The abrupt change from the busy Berlin metropolis to the barren, mystical, land of Israel was difficult for the artist whose first paintings depicted dark brooding landscapes. The landscapes of the 1940s, however, reveal the changes which took place in the artist. His paintings are filled with light, the colors became brighter and the scenes more joyous. Mordechai Ardon became intrigued not only by the landscape of the country but of its cities and people and their everyday life. In this work, Ardon depicts the picturesque beauty of Mishmar Ha'Emek, a kibbutz founded by Polish and Galician immigrants in the Jezreel Valley in 1922. Referring to a similar work from this period Vishny notes: "Although Ardon says that many of his early paintings are nothing more than hastily made oil sketches, these quiet, unassuming pictures with their harmonious color arrangements are most appealing... A nervous energy quickens the twisted boughs and contrasts with the calm horizontal lines of the buildings below... Once a dark mirror of Ardon's feelings, the landscape now shiningly reflects the newly awakened joie de vivre he experienced in his surroundings." (Michele Vishny, Mordechai Ardon, New York, pp. 29,32).