Reclining figure in red

Adler was central to the generation of twentieth-century Anglo-Jewish artists which included Bomberg (lots 58, 60-62), Kramer (lots 63 and 65) and Meninsky (lot 69). Born in Poland in 1895, he made his artistic career in Germany. He was a member of the most prominent contemporary movements of the period and a frequent contributor to publications about modern Jewish Art. He exhibited alongside major figures of the German avant-garde such as Max Ernst, Otto Dix and Paul Klee. As a Polish Jew and a Socialist, Adler was forced to leave Germany when the Nazis gained power in 1933. His work was included in the infamous Entartete Kunst exhibition which toured Germany between 1937-8. After sharing a studio in Paris with Otto Abel where he met Picasso and Hayter and was influenced by the 'Abstraction-Creation' group, he fled the continent for Scotland in 1941 with the remains of the Polish Free Army. He moved to London in 1943. He brought with him a variety of European influences which contributed to the development of British Art of the 1940s.