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Lot Essay
Jankel Adler was born in Tuszyn near Lodz, the eighth of twelve children, and was brought up in a Chassidic family. Breaking away from tradition, Adler travelled to Germany in 1916 to begin his art studies in Barmen in the Rhineland. During the 1920s and 1930s, he was an active member of the avant-garde, associated with Das Junge Rheinland group in Dusseldorf, the socialist Aktivistbund and communist Kommune artists' groups, and exhibited on three occasions with the Novembergruppe. During these years Adler exhibited alongside prominent figures of the German avant-garde, such as Max Ernst, Oskar Schlemmer, Lyonnel Feininger and Ernst Wilhelm Nay, and counted among his friends Otto Dix and Paul Klee.
Adler was also a founding member of the Yung Yiddish group in Lodz. This was an artistic and literary society which published periodicals, organized readings, drama groups and lectures using the Yiddish language only. As a member of the Yung Yiddish group, Adler believed in preserving ancient religious tradition and secular European history in combination with modern values.
Judith was painted in Germany in 1927-28. In his paintings of the period, Adler depicted a prototype of a statuesque woman with large, flat, foreign facial features. These figures were monumental and designed to fill the pictorial space and, on occasion, they are accompanied by writing in Hebrew. In the present painting, the subject's name Judith is written in the upper right corner.
Judith is portrayed in a domestic interior, holding the severed head of Holofernes under a glass dome. This is a mannequin head which appears in other paintings of the period by Adler. A blue cloth is draped under the glass dome, reminiscent of Renaissance depictions of the subject. As in many other works from this time, the use of paint is heavy and textural. Adler's innovative technique of adding grainy materials to his paint, such as sea sand and salt, serves to enhance the weight and volume of the figure. Moreover, the application of an engraving-like technique with the end of the brush further underlines the volume of both the figure and the interior details.
The triumph of Judith is depicted as an understated household scene - her heroism is personal, not national. Adler uses the prototype of a foreign woman, along with the unique subject - the vanquishing of an army general by a woman saving her people from the Babylonian enemy - as perhaps an outlet for his own ambiguous feelings of disorientation. Adler chose to move in non-Jewish circles, estranged from his tradition and past. His victory, as with other members of the Yung Yiddish who saw their cultural salvation in modernism, was his assimilation into inter-war German liberal artistic society. Thus Judith's triumph becomes Adler's own personal triumph: the vanquishing of the general is his victory in society, locking his fears and doubts under a glass dome. This triumph is enhanced by the use of Hebrew script, the ancient subject matter and the monumental scale of Judith.
Adler was also a founding member of the Yung Yiddish group in Lodz. This was an artistic and literary society which published periodicals, organized readings, drama groups and lectures using the Yiddish language only. As a member of the Yung Yiddish group, Adler believed in preserving ancient religious tradition and secular European history in combination with modern values.
Judith was painted in Germany in 1927-28. In his paintings of the period, Adler depicted a prototype of a statuesque woman with large, flat, foreign facial features. These figures were monumental and designed to fill the pictorial space and, on occasion, they are accompanied by writing in Hebrew. In the present painting, the subject's name Judith is written in the upper right corner.
Judith is portrayed in a domestic interior, holding the severed head of Holofernes under a glass dome. This is a mannequin head which appears in other paintings of the period by Adler. A blue cloth is draped under the glass dome, reminiscent of Renaissance depictions of the subject. As in many other works from this time, the use of paint is heavy and textural. Adler's innovative technique of adding grainy materials to his paint, such as sea sand and salt, serves to enhance the weight and volume of the figure. Moreover, the application of an engraving-like technique with the end of the brush further underlines the volume of both the figure and the interior details.
The triumph of Judith is depicted as an understated household scene - her heroism is personal, not national. Adler uses the prototype of a foreign woman, along with the unique subject - the vanquishing of an army general by a woman saving her people from the Babylonian enemy - as perhaps an outlet for his own ambiguous feelings of disorientation. Adler chose to move in non-Jewish circles, estranged from his tradition and past. His victory, as with other members of the Yung Yiddish who saw their cultural salvation in modernism, was his assimilation into inter-war German liberal artistic society. Thus Judith's triumph becomes Adler's own personal triumph: the vanquishing of the general is his victory in society, locking his fears and doubts under a glass dome. This triumph is enhanced by the use of Hebrew script, the ancient subject matter and the monumental scale of Judith.