Works
Reproductions
Bio
Mordechai Ardon (1896- 1992), born as Mordecai Bronstein in Tuchow, Poland. In 1919 he moved to Berlin and studied with Kandinsky, Klee and Lyonel Feininger at the Bauhause, Weimar. He immigrated to Israel in 1933 and settled in Jerusalem.
Between 1940 and 1952 Ardon was the director of the Bezalel School of arts and crafts and changed its characteristics. In 1974 he got an honorary doctorate of philosophy. In his last years he lived and worked in Paris, where he received international recognition.
Ardon’s painting moved gradually from descriptive landscape to abstract. His semi- abstract work was dominated by symbolic and allegorical fragments- pieces of written manuscripts, stars, ladders, etc. in his later work, his paintings are almost completely abstract.
As a central European master of art, Ardon mixed his own colors and took great pains to produce the intricate texture of his paintings. His rich inner world is full of associations and defined visual symbols, the working of which something reminiscent of his teacher, Paul Klee. He approached the glorious and festive in a grand aesthetic manner, and in a wide range of pure, luminous colors.
Further Reading
Education
1920-25 Bauhaus School, Weimar, Germany, with Itten, Klee, Kandinsky, Feininger
1926 Studied with Max Doerner
Teaching
1929 Kunstschule Itten, Berlin, Germany
1935 Seminar, Bet Hakerem, Jerusalem
1935-52 Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem
1940-52 Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem, Director
1952-63 Supervisor and Art Advisor, Ministry of Education and Culture, Jerusalem
Awards And Prizes
1954 Unesco Prize
1963 Israel Prize for Painting
1974 Doctor Honoris Causa of Philosophy, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem
1974 Worthy Citizen of Jerusalem
1988 Boris Schatz Prize
1992 Tel Aviv Museum of Art and Isracard Prize, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv
