Please view details of “Sunken Caesarea” by Mordechai Ardon
Mordechai Ardon was born in a Hasidic family in Tuchow in 1896, his name was Mordhe Eliezer Bronstein. His story was quite typical for many Jewish artists of the 20th century. From 1920 to 1926, he studied in Germany, at the Weimar Bauhaus school, which was then the center of the European avant-garde. Interestingly, there he became friends with Paul Klee, who taught at the Bauhaus. Moreover, Ardon studied with Wassily Kandinsky and Johanns Itten.
In 1933, he immigrated to Mandatory Palestine and settled in Jerusalem. Especially fascinated by the city and the surroundings, the atist started to create metaphoric landscapes. He bizarrely mixed reality with fantasy. So, he conveyed the spirit and atmosphere, his perception and perspective on images.
“Sunken Caesarea”
In many artworks by Ardon the same motifs are present. In particular, they include the elements of Israeli landscape symbolizing a certain idea, cosmogonic image of the sky, Jacob’s ladder, parchments and scrolls with ancient Jewish texts. “Sunken Caesarea” is not an exception. In this abstract canvas spectators can recognize the mirrored urban view full of rooves. Furthermore, the ladder in the top left corner strives upward. Probably, it is the ladder about which Jacob dreamed during his flight from his brother Esau in the Book of Genesis. Jacob’s ladder leads to heaven, it symbolizes the obligations before God and the inheritance.
The moon is reflected back to front in the lower part of the painting. The transparent stairy sky is mirrored in the depicted water, it fills the space and captivates.The amazing blue color brings the depth and reflects the reality. The name of the artwork refers to the sunken pristine treasures, that carry the energy of the past. Caesarea was an ancient city on the coast of Mediterranean, now in picturesque ruins.
Mordechai Ardon painted with the new means for his century. At the same period Anna Ticho similarly devoted herself to the depictions of the mood of the Holy City, as described in our blog.
Ardon was a professor at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Yaacov Agam was among his students. Our gallery has many artworks by this famous kinetic artist.
Kings Gallery is a leading fine art gallery established in Jerusalem in 1995. We strive to collect and sell the highest quality historic and contemporary Israeli and International art. Especially, the gallery specializes in artists from the early period of the 1920’s. In addition, Kings allery features leading up-and-coming young artists who will definitely be prominent names in the next few years.
