Photographed by Stanley Batkin

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Mordechai Ardon (July 13, 1896-June 18, 1992), a Polish-born Israeli artist. Ardon was awarded the Israel Prize for painting in 1963.
Ardon was born in Tuchow, Galicia (the Austro-Hungarian Empire). In 1919 He immigrated to Germany, where he studied in the "Bauhaus" school. After completing his studies he joined the expressionist "November Group," where he was introduced to artistic abstraction. Ardon's early work focused on landscape paintings and expressive depictions of figures. In 1933 he immigrated to the Land of Israel and settled in Jerusalem. In 1940 he was appointed director of the "New Bezalel," a position he held until 1952.
From 1952 onwards, Ardon used a complex system of imagery which made use of the Jewish mystical tradition created in the Land of Israel (Kabbalah) and of the biblical world, assimilated into a historical-Zionist framework. In addition, symbolic references to the Holocaust can also be seen in his work. Among his best known paintings are "Gates of Light" (1953), "Steppes of the Negev" (1953), "The Woodpecker of Time" (1963), "At the Gates of Jerusalem" (1967) and the triptych of stained glass windows in the Jewish National Library in Jerusalem, "Isaiah's Prophecy" (1982-1984).

Education

1920-25 Bauhaus School, Weimar, Germany, with Itten, Klee, Kandinsky, Feininger
1926 Studied with Max Doerner

Teaching

1929 Kunstschule Itten, Berlin
1935 Seminar, Bet Hakerem, Jerusalem
1935-52 Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem
1940-52 Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem, Director
1952-63 Supervisor and Art Advisor, Ministry of Education and Culture, Jerusalem

Awards and Prizes

1966 painting Prize, exhibition at Warsaw, Poland
1998 Targa Natalvita Prize, Centro Sever, Milano, Italy.