Collection: Jankel Adler   1895 - 1949 

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 had a great impact on the artists Robert Colquhoun and Robert MacBryde. He settled permanently in London in 1943 where he was to influence a number of 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.

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