(Bucharest 1895 - 1984 Ein Hod)

Route d'héros. 1950.

Oil on canvas.

Signed lower left: Janco.

82 x 101 cm.

Provenance:
- Sotheby's Tel Aviv, 31 May 1990, lot 27.
- Private collection, Switzerland.

The Romanian-Israeli artist, writer and architect Marcel Janco is primarily known as one of the forefathers of Dadaism and co-founder of the Cabaret Voltaire, yet his contribution to the development and promotion of Jewish and Israeli art is of major significance.
Amidst increasing antisemitism, Janco fled his native Romania to Israel in 1941 and within a short period of time became one of the main promoters and representatives of Jewish art. The years between 1945 and 1955 were marked by numerous activities involving cultural policy. On behalf of the new State of Israel, Janco designed national parks and managed them as curator; he was involved with the Old City of Jaffa and contributed greatly to its artist-friendly community. In 1950 his paintings were shown at a retrospective in New York, which established the international significance of his work. One year later Janco resumed his activities as an art teacher, and the following year his work was presented in the first Israel Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. One of the most remarkable achievements of this industrious artist was the salvage, preservation and revival of the town of Ein Hod, which had been deserted a few years earlier during the exodus of the Palestinian Arabs. Janco rebuilt the site together with other Israeli artists and turned it into a form of utopian community, artists' colony and tourist attraction.