Adlen Misel

Landscape Oil on canvas signed Ecole de Paris Image size 60/45 cm Framed

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Michel Adlen (1898-1980)

Ecole de Paris | Michel Adlen Born in 1898 in the city of Saki in Ukraine. Not much known about early childhood, however we do know that between the years 1915-1922, Adlen took a few painting courses in Vienna, where he participated in an exhibition for his first time. In 1923, he lived in Berlin, where he took part in several expositions of the art of graphics. In the same year, he arrives to Paris and goes through his experimental Post Cubistic period until 1925. Gradually, he becomes part of the art scene of Paris in those years. In 1929, he receives his French nationality and starts working on illustrations to many and diverse novels and newspapers, in these years this was his main occupation and the only source of income he had. In 1932, he publishes an album that contains his lithography pieces, with an introduction written by Andre Salmon (1881-1969, a French poet). The album?s name is ?The Suburbs?. In 1936, he participated in international exposition of wood engraving held in Warsaw. These engravings were acquired by the museum of Moscow in 1928. In 1937 he was noted in the article ?Nos Artistes? (our artists). Adlen had two solo exhibitions, one in the year 1950, and the other in 1952. In 1955, Armand Lanoux (1913-1983, French writer) published a monograph on Adlen. In 1960, a sketche album was published, its theme was the circus: ?clown de Paris?, all illustrations in the album are Adlen?s. In 1963, Pierre Mac Orlan (1882-1970, French writer) wrote the introduction to Adlen's last published album ?Ile de France?. Michel Adlen was found dead in his studio in Paris in the year 1980. As a Non-French artist who worked in Paris, Adlen is considered to be a part of the ?School of Paris?. The ?School of Paris? was not a proper group of artists who joined together with a specific cause, ideology or conceptual artistic ideas, it was a definition given retroactively to the Non-French artists who was working in Paris before and during World WarI. Among these artists there are, in percentage, a large number of Jewish artists, such as Marc Chagall, Chaim Soutine, Amedeo Modigliani and many others. Adlen's landscape oil paintings characterized by a rich yet monochromatic plate, and a black contour line which distinguishes the objects from its background. The result is a unique language of painting that ranges from realism to expressionism. The landscapes he describes are mostly French, whether it is a small village, a mountain or forests outside the city, or trees and boulevards inside Paris itself. Some of Adlen?s oil paintings are not monochrome, and these paintings are outstandingly rich in colourful tonality and contrast. All of his oil paintings are small by size and modest by subject- he chooses to deal with prosaic themes rather then major, historical or religious. Adlen is inspired by nature, and he takes his canvas and paint outdoors. In those paintings he describe the special and intimate village life, away from the intense city life. He enjoys painting rivers and reflections on water, thick forest, humble looking villages with their small houses. He also pays attention to the life of the people who lives in these landscapes- the farmers while they are resting or during their lunch time, as he designs them in their peaceful life, tired after yet another day in the fields. He transfers a typical environment of the French village life- the farmers with their bottles of wine during lunch, the some what heavy characters, whether man or woman. He also enjoys describing the wide skies spreading, with their glow, through the landscapes as if they were two worlds combining together to a hole one. The majority of his oil paintings were, indeed, landscape, but he has dealt with other themes, such as portraits. He enjoys depicting the life of musicians, acrobats, dancers, women getting dressed with their typical feminine movements and their naked bodies. In these paintings, Adlen maintains his known- for language of painting. As he describe people, he keeps using the same color plate, whether monochrome or very rich and diverse, and he continue using the black contour line that is so typical of his work. Furthermore, he juggles between a punctual layout of paint on the canvas and a more free method of laying out stains, a technique mostly used by the impressionists. That results in beautiful pieces of work that capture the humanity of the subjects in the portraits. Adlen?s still life paintings, describing bowls of fruits gives us, perhaps, the most realistic feeling then of his other work. In a smart and diverse sketching, the spirit of life is blowing, and nature, that comes out from inside the rough brush technique, expressing the initial impression of it. His paintings are not problematic, and Adlen is not trying to solve technical or formal problems, he is the working- man who is trying to describe the life of the working- men. He doe?s it with all modesty and affection as he clings to these subjects and designs it as if he was part of this life himself. His paintings capture a simple and honest truth. But Adlen?s most notable work is of course his illustrations and sketching. He illustrated many and diverse albums, notebook and novels. The technique used on his sketching is mostly coal on paper, monochrome, free- handed and simple. His interest in the circus life gives him the opportunity to describe these theatrical people, to see their humanity through out the costumes and make- up. He shows us the conflict between their life on stage and their life back stage- the glamour verses the tiredness after the shows. In his sketching, his talent is most reveals- in his light, almost nonchalant movements, in the way he can characterize a man or woman with only few lines, or a few stains.

 

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