Jankel Adler

Jankel Adler (born Jankiel Jakub Adler; 26 July 1895 – 25 April 1949) was a Polish-Jewish avant-garde painter and printmaker active primarily in Germany, France and England. He began his career as an engraver in Belgrade before studying arts in Germany. Co-founding the Yung-yidish group in Łódź, he later became involved with the Cologne Progressives and the Union of Progressive International Artists in Germany. He began teaching at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and was a student of the Swiss abstract painter Paul Klee who had an important influence on Adler's work. Facing Nazi persecution, Adler fled to Paris in 1933, where he actively opposed fascism. His works were targeted by the Nazis, with several displayed in the Degenerate Art Exhibition. Adler volunteered for the Polish army during World War II but was later discharged for health reasons, eventually settling in Scotland and then Aldbourne, England. He later discovered that none of his siblings survived the Holocaust. Adler died in Aldbourne in 1949.