Painting, titled "Marseille Port", a large (100 x 133 cm) oil from 1933, is estimated to sell for £120,000-180,000 at Bonhams.
A work by Romanianborn artist Marcel Janco, one of the founders of Dadaism who later in life moved here and established the Ein Hod artist village, is the top lot in Bonhams Israeli Art & Judaica auction in London, on May 24th.
The painting, titled ‘Marseille Port’, a large (100 x 133 cm) oil from 1933, is estimated to sell for £120,000-180,000.
Born in 1895, Janco was among the principal founders of the Dada Movement which was opposed to war, aggression and the changing world culture.
Dadaist events included poetry, avant-garde music, and mask wearing dancers in elaborate shows, but the movement also tested cultural conventions about the role of art in society and its apparent irreverence enraged audiences. Dada came as a direct result of artists’ shock in view of the carnage of World War I but the movement was not all nihilistic; Dadaist ideas evolved in the 1920s into Surrealism, arguably one of the most influential streams in 20th century art.
Janco had an eclectic style which brilliantly combines abstract and figurative elements, expressionist in nature. In 1941 he moved to Eretz Israel, seven years before the establishment of the state. Here he painted idyllic watercolor and oil images and was captivated by the exotic sights of his new surroundings.
Ein Hod was established in 1953 and the northern village now boasts the Janco Dada Museum, dedicated to the artist’s work.
In 1967 he was awarded the Israel Prize for Painting.
In the last years of his life he worked together with friends to erect the museum, dying just ten months after its inauguration in 1984.
Also featured in the sale at Bonham’s is Israeli realist painter and founder of the Jerusalem Studio School Israel Hershberg.
Hershberg was born in 1948 in a displaced persons camp in Linz, Austria. In 1949 he was brought to Israel but at the age of nine he emigrated to the United States.
Following an extensive program of studies in the US Hershberg moved back to Israel with his wife and family in 1984. In 1991, he was awarded the Sandberg Prize for Israeli Art and in 1998 the Tel Aviv Museum of Art Prize for Israeli Art.
Hershberg’s piece at the auction is called ‘Jerusalem, City Center,’ painted in 1989-90. It is estimated to sell for £100,000-150,000.
Other Israeli and Jewish artists who will be featured in the sale include Ori Reisman, Jakob Steinhardt and Ludwig Blum.
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Marcel Janco
Marcel Janco (born Marcel Iancu; Hebrew: מרסל ינקו; May 24, 1895 - April 21, 1984) was a Romanian-born Israeli painter and architect, and one of the founders of the Dada movement.
Biography
Janco was born to a Jewish family in Bucharest.
A friend and compatriot of Tristan Tzara, he was among the founders of the Dadaist movement, established in 1916 at Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich, Switzerland, by a group of exiled poets, painters and philosophers who were opposed to war, aggression and the changing world culture. In 1922, Janco returned to Romania, where he gained fame as a painter and architect. In 1941, fleeing the Nazis, he moved to Palestine, and was one of the founders of the New Horizons Group (1948). The Janco-Dada Museum, which opened in 1983, features Janco's work and explores the history of the Dada movement.
In 1953, Janco established the Ein Hod artists' village near Haifa, Israel. Towards the end of his life he helped found the Dada museum in Ein Hod which bears his name. The museum houses Janco's art, explores the history of Dadaism and mounts changing exhibitions.
Janco died on 21 April 1984 at the age of 88.
Awards
- In 1946 and again in 1951, Janco was awarded the Dizengoff Prize for Painting.
- In 1967, he was awarded the Israel Prize, in painting.
Bibliography
Janco, Marcel (2005). Marcel Janco: Interdisciplinary Artist. Tel Aviv: Bauhaus Center. ISBN 9789659060610
