Waves Israel-Romania Binational

  • Issue: August 1993
  • Designer: Z. Rosenman
  • Stamp size: 60 x 90 mm
  • Plate no.: 193
  • Sheet of 1 stamp
  • Printers: E. Lewin-Epstein Ltd.
  • Method of printing: Offset

Marcel Janco - artist, architect, theorist, teacher, man of spirit and of enterprise - was born in Romania, and even as a youth stood out for his versatile talents. As a student in Zurich in 1916 he joined a small group of exiled artists to found the Dada movement, one of the boldest revolutionary movements in the history of modern art.

Its members undertook to protest against the horrors of war and to undermine what they deemed the false values of bourgeois society. Janco took an active part in the movement's cabaret soirees, in its exhibitions and published his work in its periodicals.

The Dadaistic ideas were his guiding principles throughout his life.

After his graduation Janco lived in Paris for a while. In 1922 he returned to Romania and settled in Bucharest. He had 20 very prolific years there, but after the rise of the Nazis to power and an ensuing pogrom in Bucharest he emigrated with his family to Palestine.

Here he began a new chapter in his life. The 46 year old Janco arrived in the post-Holocaust pre-independent Land of Israel.

During the first decade of his life here, feeling committed as an artist to the struggle for independence, he painted the freedom fighters, the landscapes of the newly born state, its veteran inhabitants and new immigrants - all against the background of current events.

At the end of the 40's Janco was among the founders of the New Horizons group, and exhibited with its members till the mid 50's.

In 1953 he came upon an abandoned Arab village (that was to be demolished) on one of the slopes of Mount Carmel. He succeeded in convincing the authorities to preserve the place and turn it into an artists village. Janco brought there the first group of settlers and decided to make Em Hod his own home as well.

He continued his artistic work and participated in numerous exhibitions in Israel and abroad. In 1967 he was awarded the Israel Prize for his life's work.

He died in 1984.

Janco Dada museum

It was only natural for Jancos friends and admirers to choose Em Hod as the place to erect the house which would bear his name. The Janco Dada Museum was inaugurated in the summer of 1983, and is celebrating its 10th anniversary now. Its 4 floors teem with diversified activities.

The museum features an active youth wing and a centre for the study of Janco's work and of the Dada movement. The museum staff, consisting of professional guides and hostesses, is at the disposal of the public, offering guidance and information.

The Souvenir Sheet issued for the "TELAFILA 93" Exhibition based on the "Immigrant Ship" Painting

The large oil on canvas painting Immigrant Ship (120x102cm) was painted by Janco in 1945, shortly after his immigration from Romania. His emotional involvement is evident: the illegal newcomers, Holocaust survivors, huddling at the lower part of the painting, are depicted in gloomy colours, while the ship's hoisted sails flutter in optimistic bright colours. The composition of this work combines Janco's figurative and abstract styles.

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Telafila 93 Israel-Romania Binational stamp exhibition