Portrait of Jankel Adler by Otto Dix
Jankel Adler (1895-1949, Polish) was born in Tuszyn, Poland, and was the seventh of ten children in an Orthodox Jewish family. In 1912, he travelled to Belgrade to study engraving. Two years later he moved to Germany where he lived with his sister and studied in the college of arts and crafts in Barmen. He founded an avant-garde group of artists, “Jung Jidysz” in 1918. After moving to several different places in Germany, he moved to Düsseldorf in 1922 where he met Paul Klee who became a great influence upon his work. Not unlike other artists during the Nazi era, his work was also exhibited as degenerate in 1933. Soon afterwards, Adler left Germany and remained in Paris until 1939 when he volunteered to serve in the Polish army, but was discharged in 1941 owing to health issues. In 1943, he moved to London. He survived all his siblings who had been killed in the Holocaust, but died at age 53 in 1949.
The influence of Picasso, Léger, Klee and Dix can be seen in Adler’s work. So, it is not surprising that Adler includes cats in many of his compositions since the artists that played a large role in his artistic development were all cat lovers.
Katzen, Cats
1927
Cats
Cat – Mixed media (oil, pencil, sand) on vellum
Still Life with Cat
Woman and Sitting Cat
Woman and Cat
Girl and Cat’via
Woman and Two Cats
Adler Cléro
El criador de gatos
1925
Detail of the cat from Mr Cleron the cat breeder
1925
Cat ink on paper
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Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2016 Laura Vocelle
I like the ‘girl’ piece