Adler, Jankel

Born Tuszyn, Poland, July 26, 1895; died Aldbourne, England, April 25, 1949

82.15  Blind man with Boy (Mann und Knabe)

c. 1928

Tempera, gesso, and sand,

25 x 19" (63.5 x 48.4 cm)

Signed, ll: Adler

Exhib: Stadtisches Museum, Wuppertal, June 1955, nr. 46

Provenance: Walter Kaiser Collection

Viersen, Germany 1958

Blind Man With Boy (Mann und Knabe) c. 1928 

 This painting is an example of Adler’s experimental technique, which, in the 1920's made him an important figure in Cologne’s artistic circles. Adler mixed sand and other materials directly into his paints–a practice he apparently learned from his first teacher Wiethuechter. This method allowed him to create a relief-like surface in which the textural aspect was an integral part of the composition.

 As in many of his other works of the time, Adler here scratched and combed lined into this thickened surface, producing an interplay between the graphic outlines and painterly aspects of the work. Through such imaginative solutions, Adler inspired other German artists, including Heinrich Hoerle and even Max Ernst, whose “frottage” method may have owed something to his fellow Cologne artist.

 Adler’s theme of a blind man and a young boy demonstrate his penchant for portrayals of pathos of the common man. His subjects were often the downtrodden, including studies of his fellow Jews, rendered as single figures or in figural groups with simplified backgrounds alluding to folk-art imagery.