Jankel Adler

Jankel adler

Jankel Adler was born in Lodz, Poland to Jewish parents in 1895. After his studies Adler spent time in Poland, Berlin and Paris then moved to Dusseldorf where he taught alongside his mentor Paul Klee. Adler was forced to leave Germany in 1933, at the height of his success there, because of the rise to power of the Nazis. His paintings were removed from German museums and appeared on the lists of ‘degenerate art’. None of Adler’s nine siblings survived the Holocaust.

Settling in Paris, he became friendly with Picasso and Otto Dix, whose influence on his work is apparent. In 1940 Adler joined the Polish army and travelled to Glasgow where he became a good friend of Josef Herman who had also lost his family in the Holocaust and was able to provide him with emotional support

He was , in our opinion , there greatest influence on British art in the 20th Century and had a great impact on the artists Robert Colquhoun and Robert MacBryde having a studio in Bedford Gardens where they were also located . Additionally, he was to influence a number of other young British painters including John Minton, Keith Vaughan, Prunella Clough, Michael Ayrton and the poet Dylan Thomas.

Adler died prematurely, aged just 53, in 1949.