Mordecai Ardon Moon Rocks 1970 Reproduction Print

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This artwork titled "Moon Rock" 1970, is an original colors screen print on paper by noted Polish/Israeli artist Mordecai Ardon, … Read more This artwork titled "Moon Rock" 1970, is an original colors screen print on paper by noted Polish/Israeli artist Mordecai Ardon, 1896-1992. It is hand signed and numbered 10/180 in pencil by the artist. The artwork (image size) is 17 x 20.75 inches, framed size is 29.5 x 33 inches. Custom framed in a brown hardwood frame, with off-white matting. It is in excellent condition.

About the artist:
Mordecai Ardon (1896-1992) was born in 1896 in the small Polish village of Tuchow. After World War First he left for Paris and like many Russian and Polish artists only got as far as Berlin where he enrolled to a preparatory Bauhaus class. He found a small room in the house of the older Paul Klee, who became a friend to young Ardon. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, he immigrated to Israel. In leaving Europe he not only lost the stimulating human contacts but also the inspiring museums and exhibitions. In addition, the landscape was different, the sky had a blinding light and the sunsets were overwhelmingly colorful. His reaction was to retreat to his house. The pictures he painted during the first years in Jerusalem were brooding portraits and sunless landscapes. The works revealed a continuous effort to maintain the link with the masters of the past and above all with Rembrandt. Only after a while did he find his own unique style that combined the mysticism of the Kabala along with modern age and the inventions of contemporary art. Ardon was able to render the strong Israeli light not only impressionistically but also internally in conveying the awe-inspiring primeval nature of the land. The landscapes of Israel became mystical elements of signs and inner light. Ardon had exhibitions in New York, Amsterdam, the Venice Biennale and more. A recent retrospective of his works had just been shown at the Israel Museum of Art in Jerusalem.


Mordecai Ardon (1896-1992) is considered by many to be Israel's greatest painter. He studied at the Bauhaus (1921-25) under Klee, Kandinsky, Feininger and Itten. The influence of the Bauhaus and especially of Paul Klee on his artistic development was profound and lasted a life time. The other great source of inspiration were the Old Masters, especially Rembrandt, and El Greco. After graduating from the Bauhaus he studied the painting techniques of the Old Masters under Max Doerner, at the Munich Academy (1926). These dual, seemingly contradicting elements, forged the character of his painting throughout the 70 years of his artistic career. Ardon's unique position in Modern Art stems from the union of these two opposites in his paintings: A Modern, Expressionist, and mainly Abstract, style, with the classical painting technique of the Old Masters. The depth and richness of his colours owe their quality to this technique. He liberated them from the figurative context of the Old Masters, and turned them into tools for the creation of his original contribution to Modern Art of the 20th Century. Ardon believed in pure art devoid of any political or social message. He believed that a painting should be appreciated and judged solely by its inherent artistic elements, color, composition and their interplay. He rejected literary, symbolic or, indeed, any other additional meaning attributed to a work of art. Yet, although he tried, he could not always overcome his urge to create an artistic expression of his horror of war and injustice. This urge culminated in the eight monumental triptychs which he created between 1955 and 1988, but is also found in many other paintings, such as Khirbet Khize and Fatal Eclipse. In a letter to Willem Sandberg, the legendary director of the Stedelijk Museum of Amsterdam (and later, the first director of the Israel Museum), he acknowledges this inner conflict, which he likens to the historic conflict between Athens and Jerusalem. See less