- 32
Mordecai Ardon
Estimate
180,000 - 250,000 USD
bidding is closed
Description
- Mordecai Ardon
- Bloom and Sign
- signed Ardon and dated 70 (lower right); signed again and titled (on the reverse) and signed again, titled, dated 1970 and inscribed Paris (on the stretcher)
- oil on canvas
- 62 1/4 by 50 in.
- 158 by 127 cm.
- Painted in 1970.
Provenance
Private collection, Jerusalem (and sold: Christie's, Tel Aviv, October 2, 2003, lot 83)
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner
Exhibited
London, Marlborough Fine Art Ltd., Mordechai Ardon, April-May 1973, no. 20, illustrated in the exhibition catalogue p. 38
New York, Marlborough Fine Arts Inc., Mordechai Ardon Recent Works, December 1980-January 1981, no. 4
Tel Aviv, Gordon Gallery
New York, Marlborough Fine Arts Inc., Mordechai Ardon Recent Works, December 1980-January 1981, no. 4
Tel Aviv, Gordon Gallery
Literature
Michele Vishny, Mordecai Ardon, New York, 1973, no. 267, illustrated p. 233
Condition
Oil on unlined canvas, which is slightly slack on the stretcher. There are a few very minor abrasions along the extreme edges and a very minor surface scratch along the extreme right edge that extends slightly into the picture plane. There are also very small, minor scuffs in the lower left corner and at the extreme left edge right above the green mass. Under UV light a few very small areas of inpainting are visible at the extreme edges.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.
Catalogue Note
Bloom and Sign is a striking example of the progress of Ardon's oeuvre towards the mystical and terrestrial. The formal training of Ardon's art at the Bauhas, Weimer under Itten, Klee, Kandinsky and Feninger continues to be apparent while the incandescent green tones set against the eternal depth of a black background harmonically create a poetic intensity which the artist sought to achieve with his palette.
Born in Poland in 1896, Ardon studied at the Bauhaus, Weimar between 1920-25 and in 1926 he studied painting techniques in Munich under Prof. Max Doerner. Between 1929-33 he taught at the Kunstschule Itten in Berlin before immigrating to Jerusalem where he would influence many generations of Israeli artists as a teacher, and later director, at the Bezalel School of Art.
"From his earliest identification with the soil of the Land of Israel in the 1930s, and throughout his life, Ardon, like many artists of his generation, dreamed of a local, Israeli, art. He promoted this idea in numerous publications, beginning with his thought-provoking article 'The Artist and the Earth' in 1949. In the fifties and early sixties, he added layer upon layer of meaning to his art. Ancient Sumerian myths, the Hebrew Bible, and kabbalistic and Hasidic ideas were all represented. Yet, when he looked around him, he felt very isolated in his creative mission. Although he was not alone in asking 'what is the nature of our own originality?' and although he was using modernist forms, he felt cut off from local modernists - Zaritsky, Streichman, Stematsky, and the other members of the New Horizons group. In 1965, he opted against 'ascetic' Jerusalem and for 'Dionysian' Paris, where he started to spend seven months a year, and after the death of his wife in 1981, he moved there... From about 1965, a slow process of breaking through the boundaries of the real to the beyond is evident in Ardon's work... In the seventies, the tendency to eliminate the boundaries and unify the terrestrial and the celestial - in an attempt to reach an infinite and universal world - becomes increasingly pronounced... In the following years, Ardon continued to use luminous colors and intricate surface textures, while his landscape views seem to become infinite, expanding into eternity. The most striking of his works of the 1980s look like cosmic visions, but they also vaguely echo some of the structures of a landscape." (Ruth Apter-Gabriel, Mordecai Ardon Landscapes of Infinity, Israel Museum, Jerusalem exhibition brochure, 2003).
Born in Poland in 1896, Ardon studied at the Bauhaus, Weimar between 1920-25 and in 1926 he studied painting techniques in Munich under Prof. Max Doerner. Between 1929-33 he taught at the Kunstschule Itten in Berlin before immigrating to Jerusalem where he would influence many generations of Israeli artists as a teacher, and later director, at the Bezalel School of Art.
"From his earliest identification with the soil of the Land of Israel in the 1930s, and throughout his life, Ardon, like many artists of his generation, dreamed of a local, Israeli, art. He promoted this idea in numerous publications, beginning with his thought-provoking article 'The Artist and the Earth' in 1949. In the fifties and early sixties, he added layer upon layer of meaning to his art. Ancient Sumerian myths, the Hebrew Bible, and kabbalistic and Hasidic ideas were all represented. Yet, when he looked around him, he felt very isolated in his creative mission. Although he was not alone in asking 'what is the nature of our own originality?' and although he was using modernist forms, he felt cut off from local modernists - Zaritsky, Streichman, Stematsky, and the other members of the New Horizons group. In 1965, he opted against 'ascetic' Jerusalem and for 'Dionysian' Paris, where he started to spend seven months a year, and after the death of his wife in 1981, he moved there... From about 1965, a slow process of breaking through the boundaries of the real to the beyond is evident in Ardon's work... In the seventies, the tendency to eliminate the boundaries and unify the terrestrial and the celestial - in an attempt to reach an infinite and universal world - becomes increasingly pronounced... In the following years, Ardon continued to use luminous colors and intricate surface textures, while his landscape views seem to become infinite, expanding into eternity. The most striking of his works of the 1980s look like cosmic visions, but they also vaguely echo some of the structures of a landscape." (Ruth Apter-Gabriel, Mordecai Ardon Landscapes of Infinity, Israel Museum, Jerusalem exhibition brochure, 2003).