Lot Essay
Mordecai Ardon was born in Poland into the large religious family of the master watchmaker, Alexander Bronstein. Ardon chose to become an artist and was a student of the Bauhaus School in Weimar. He was forced to flee Germany as early as 1933 since he was affiliated with a radical left wing group. On the advice of a friend, who could arrange travel papers for an immediate departure, Ardon arrived in Eretz Israel. His initial disorientation was eventually transformed into a deep love and appreciation for the new country and its dazzling landscape.
"Ardon's early representational landscape paintings frequently began out of doors. The later more abstract paintings evolved in a different manner. Ardon would bring a stone back to his studio and leave it on a shelf. Several months later the stone would inspire a landscape painting." (M. Vishny, Mordecai Ardon, New York, 1973, p. 45).
"Ardon's perception of all Israel within a stone has its precedent in legends interpreting the biblical account of Jacob's dream... Jacob laid down on the earth to sleep. In a dream God promised him that the land he was lying upon would be given to his descendents. Jewish legend interprets this passage to mean that God folded the entire land of Israel and put it beneath Jacob. Thus Ardon believes that truly the whole of Israel is enfolded even within a single stone." (Ibid).
"Stones of various sizes, colours and textures lie side by side beneath the sun in Stones and Sand. Rather than represent nature in a realistic manner, Ardon has used a mottling process to create a texture which can be tactually associated with stone. He first painted the stones in shades of lavender and cream. When the paint was half dry, he coated it with a glue composed of gum arabic and water. After the glue dried he brushed red and black paint over the same area. He next washed this painted surface. In some sections the glue adhered to the painting and protected the original colours so that, when the new coat of paint on top of the glue was washed away, the original colours were once again revealed; in other sections of the canvas the glue-water coating was rejected and the new layer of paint accepted. A mottled surface is the result" (Ibid, pp. 45-47).
"Ardon's early representational landscape paintings frequently began out of doors. The later more abstract paintings evolved in a different manner. Ardon would bring a stone back to his studio and leave it on a shelf. Several months later the stone would inspire a landscape painting." (M. Vishny, Mordecai Ardon, New York, 1973, p. 45).
"Ardon's perception of all Israel within a stone has its precedent in legends interpreting the biblical account of Jacob's dream... Jacob laid down on the earth to sleep. In a dream God promised him that the land he was lying upon would be given to his descendents. Jewish legend interprets this passage to mean that God folded the entire land of Israel and put it beneath Jacob. Thus Ardon believes that truly the whole of Israel is enfolded even within a single stone." (Ibid).
"Stones of various sizes, colours and textures lie side by side beneath the sun in Stones and Sand. Rather than represent nature in a realistic manner, Ardon has used a mottling process to create a texture which can be tactually associated with stone. He first painted the stones in shades of lavender and cream. When the paint was half dry, he coated it with a glue composed of gum arabic and water. After the glue dried he brushed red and black paint over the same area. He next washed this painted surface. In some sections the glue adhered to the painting and protected the original colours so that, when the new coat of paint on top of the glue was washed away, the original colours were once again revealed; in other sections of the canvas the glue-water coating was rejected and the new layer of paint accepted. A mottled surface is the result" (Ibid, pp. 45-47).