Marcel Janco
Marcel Janco was a Romanian and Israeli visual artist, architect and art theorist. He was the co-inventor of Dadaism and a leading exponent of Constructivism in Eastern Europe. In the 1910s, he co-edited, with Ion Vinea and Tristan Tzara, the Romanian art magazine Simbolul. Janco was a practitioner of Art Nouveau, Futurism and Expressionism before contributing his painting and stage design to Tzara's literary Dadaism. He parted with Dada in 1919, when he and painter Hans Arp founded a Constructivist circle, Das Neue Leben.
Reunited with Vinea, he founded Contimporanul, the influential tribune of the Romanian avant-garde, advocating a mix of Constructivism, Futurism and Cubism. At Contimporanul, Janco expounded a "revolutionary" vision of urban planning. He designed some of the most innovative landmarks of downtown Bucharest. He worked in many art forms, including illustration, sculpture and oil painting.
Janco was one of the leading Romanian Jewish intellectuals of his generation. Targeted by antisemitic persecution before and during World War II, he emigrated to British Palestine in 1941. He won the Dizengoff Prize and Israel Prize, and was a founder of Ein Hod, a utopian art colony, controversially built over a deserted Palestinian Arab settlement. Marcel Janco died in 1984 in Israel.
Creations
Birkat Cohanim (Priest's Blessing) 1960s Oil on canvas 50 x 70 cm
Abstraction Nouvelle II 1954 Oil on canvas 50 x 70 cm
Imaginary Animals 1950s Oil on canvas 60 x 80 cm
Anatomy 1962 Oil on canvas 60 x 80 cm
Tiberias 1950s Oil on canvas 60 x 80 cm
Goat 1960s Oil on canvas 78 x 54 cm
Exhibitions
Solo shows
1982
Bruno Gallery, Israel
1981
Establishment of the Janco Museum, Ein Hod, Israel 1981 T. Four Sprüngli Gallery, Zürich, Swiss
Participation in Art Basel, Swiss
1972
Retrospective, Janco and Dada, Tel Aviv Museum, Israel 1969 Retrospective, Contemporary Art Museum, Milan, Italy 1966
Damian Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
1964
Retrospective, Herzeliya Museum, Herzeliya, Israel
1963
Denis René Gallery, Paris, France
1961
Schwarz Gallery, Milano, Italy
1959
Retrospective Exhibtion, Dada, USA, Germany, France and Netherlands
Retrospective Exhibtion, Dada, Tel Aviv Museum, Israel
1958
Kunsthalle, Düsseldof, Germany
Amsterdam Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
1957
Represented Israel in San Paolo Biennale, Brazile
1954
Participation in the Biennale in San Paolo, Brazil
1952
Tel Aviv Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel
Representing Israel in Venice Biennale, Italy
1950
Pigal Gallery, New York, USA
1949
Our War, Bezalel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel Bruno Art Group
1948
Tel Aviv Museum, Israel 1942 Tel Aviv Museum, Israel
1941
Art Cabinett, Jerusalem, Israel
1922
Maison de Art, Bukarest, Romania
1920
Several Shows in Baselin and Zürich
1917
Opening of Dada Gallery, Zürich, Swiss
Group shows
1965
50 Years of Dada, Contemporary Art Museum, Paris, France and Kunsthaus, Zürich, Swiss
1962
Dada, El Bilico d ́Arte, Rome, Italy
1957
Galerie delle Institute, Paris, France 1956 New Horizons, Israel
1954
Dada, Sydney Janes Gallery, New York, USA
1953
7 Israeli Artists, Contemporary Art Institute, Boston, USA
1939
Gike Hall, Bukarest, Romania
1933
Dallas Hall, Bukarest, Romania
1932
Mozart Hall, Bukarest, Romania
1931
Gallery de la Renaissance, Paris, France
1930
Aliana Hall, Bukarest, Romania
1929
New Art Exhibition, Bukarest, Romania
1919
Radical Artists, Kunstgewerbe, Zürich, Swiss