Jankel Adler | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Adler in 1924, photographed byAugust Sander | |
| Born | Jankiel Jakub Adler (1895-07-26)26 July 1895 |
| Died | 25 April 1949(1949-04-25) (aged 53) |
| Nationality | Polish |
| Education | Barmen School of Art |
| Known for | Painting, printmaking |
Jankel Adler (bornJankiel Jakub Adler;[1] 26 July 1895 – 25 April 1949) was aPolish-Jewishavant-garde painter andprintmaker active primarily in Germany, France and England.[2] He began his career as anengraver inBelgrade before studying arts in Germany. Co-founding theYung-yidish group inŁódź, he later became involved with theCologne Progressives and the Union of Progressive International Artists in Germany. He began teaching atKunstakademie Düsseldorf and was a student of the Swiss abstract painterPaul Klee who had an important influence on Adler's work.
FacingNazi persecution, Adler fled to Paris in 1933, where he actively opposedfascism. His works were targeted by the Nazis, with several displayed in theDegenerate Art Exhibition. Adler volunteered for the Polish army during World War II but was later discharged for health reasons, eventually settling in Scotland and thenAldbourne, England. He later discovered that none of his siblings survivedthe Holocaust. Adler died in Aldbourne in 1949.
Jankiel Jakub Adler was born as the seventh of ten children inTuszyn, a suburb ofŁódź. In 1912 he began training as anengraver with his uncle inBelgrade. He moved in 1914 to Germany where he lived for a time with his sister inBarmen, (now part ofWuppertal). There he studied at the college of arts and crafts with professor Gustav Wiethücher.
From 1918 to 1919 he went back to Łódź, where he was joint founder ofYung-yidish, a group of young Jewish artists. In 1920 he returned briefly to Berlin; in 1921 he returned to Barmen, and in 1922 he moved toDüsseldorf. In May 1922 he attended theInternational Congress of Progressive Artists and signed the "Founding Proclamation of the Union of Progressive International Artists".[3] He also joinedFranz Seiwert andOtto Freundlich in an artists group known as theCologne Progressives.[4] He became a teacher at theAcademy of Arts, and became acquainted withPaul Klee, who influenced his work. A painting by Adler received a gold medal at the exhibition "German art Düsseldorf" in 1928.
In 1929 and 1930 he went on study trips inMallorca and other places in Spain. During the election campaign of July 1932 he published, with a group of leftist artists and intellectuals, an urgent appeal against the policy of theNational Socialists and for communism. As amodern artist, and especially as a Jew, he faced persecution underHitler's regime which took power in 1933. In that year, two of his pictures were displayed by theNazis at theMannheimer Arts Center as examples ofdegenerate art, and Adler left Germany, staying in Paris where he regarded hisexile consciously as politicalresistance against the fascist regime in Germany. In the years that followed, he made numerous journeys to Poland, Italy, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Romania and theSoviet Union. He also spent time in Paris, working atAtelier 17.[5] In 1937, twenty-five of his works were seized from public collections by the Nazis and four were shown in theDegenerate Art Exhibition in Munich.
With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, he volunteered for thePolish army that had been reconstituted in France; in 1941 he was discharged for health reasons and lived thereafter inKirkcudbright in Scotland where his work at this time included hisVenus of Kirkcudbright.[6] In 1943 he moved to London, and around 1945 a wealthy patron, Jimmy Bomford, arranged for him to live atAldbourne, Wiltshire.[7] He later learned that none of his nine siblings in Poland had survivedThe Holocaust.[7] Adler died in Whitley Cottage in Aldbourne[8] on 25 April 1949 at the age of 53, and is buried at the Jewish cemetery inBushey, Hertfordshire.[7]
Adler was strongly influenced byPicasso andLéger. He enjoyed experimenting with materials, for example sand admixtures. He often painted Jewish subjects, and painted a few abstract compositions.
