JANCO, MARCEL
The Sheik.

The Sheik.
Oil on panel. Signed by the artist lower right. Framed. 21.25 x 17.5 inches; 54 x 44 cm.

Tel Aviv, 1940.

Co-founder of Dadaism and a leading exponent of Constructivism, Bucharest-born Marcel Janco (1895-1984) was strongly associated with Surrealism via the close collaboration with his fellow Rumanian-Jewish artist, Tristan Tzara. Anti-Semitic persecution forced Janco to leave Rumania and upon his arrival to the Land of Israel he founded the utopian art colony of Ein Hod. At this stage of his career, Janco abandoned pure abstraction and favored the bold, angular, linear abstract mode of Expressionism, evident in the present lot - a stylized figure of a local notable.
     

Provenance: Engel Gallery, Jerusalem, 1977.
     

Exhibited: The Jewish Museum, New York, The Batkin Collection of Israeli Art (1985). Catalogue p. 19.