Mordecai Ardon

About

Mordecai Ardon, born Max Bronstein, was a Polish-born Israeli painter renowned for his semi-abstract works blending brilliant colors, virtuoso brushwork, and symbolic imagery drawn from Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism, the Bible, and Jerusalem landscapes. He ran away from his religious family at age 13, wandered Europe, studied acting in Berlin, and pursued art at the Bauhaus in Weimar (1920-1925) under Johannes Itten, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, and Lyonel Feininger, followed by studies with Max Doerner in Munich. Fleeing Nazi Germany in 1933 due to communist involvement, he settled in Jerusalem, changed his name in 1936, and became a pivotal figure in Israeli art as teacher and director at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design (1935-1952, director 1940-1952), and artistic advisor to Israel's Ministry of Education and Culture (1952-1963).[1][2][3][4][5]

Semi-abstract with symbolic Kabbalistic and mystical elements, jewel-like colors, and influences from surrealism and abstraction