MARCEL JANCO Romanian / Israeli, 1895–1984 Architectural Composition Mixed media on paper Signed JANCO lower left hand corner. Framed. Not examined out of frame. Artwork: 18 x 24 inches; frame: 22 x 30 inches $400-600
ARTIST PROFILE: Marcel Janco (1895–1984) was a prolific Romanian and Israeli visual artist, architect, and art theorist who played a pivotal role in the 20th-century avant-garde. A co-inventor of Dadaism, he was a key figure at the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich, where he contributed famous masks and set designs that defined the movement's early performance art. After distancing himself from Dada's nihilism, he embraced Constructivism and returned to Romania, where he co-founded the influential magazine Contimporanul and became a leading modernist architect, designing many landmark buildings in Bucharest. Facing rising antisemitic persecution, Janco emigrated to British Palestine in 1941, where he significantly shaped Israeli art by co-founding the Ofakim Hadashim (New Horizons) group and establishing the utopian artists' colony of Ein Hod. His versatile body of work—spanning painting, sculpture, and urban planning—earned him prestigious honors, including the Israel Prize and the Dizengoff Prize.
