Tuesday, February 28, 2012

A face on buttocks


This mural by famed Dada artist Marcel Janco is seeing the light of day for the first time in half a century. The discovery of the mural came as the Janco Dada museum in Israel began a restoration project of Janco's art studio in the village of Ein Hod. Eli Shaltiel is performing the restoration work and discovered the mural behind a layer of plaster. Mural Restorer, Eli Shaltiel, saying (Hebrew): "I suddenly reached a black dot, I continued to expose it further and we realized it is in fact a line. I continued following that line that day, following it wherever it will take me. I already realized it is a painting and was very excited. At the end of the day I exposed a fragment of about 30X30 centimeter, showing some kind of shape made of lines. Retroactively it was a knee and a small part of a breast." Janco was born in Bucharest in 1895 and adopted an art movement known as "Dada"-- an anti-conformist style that encouraged the use of irrational ideas. In 1941, he moved to Israel and formed a close-knit community of artists in the village. Museum curator Raya Zommer-Tal says Janco plastered over the mural himself. Director and Curator of the Janco Dada Museum in Ein Hod, Raya Zomemr-Tal, saying (English): "It wasn't done as something that a museum should exhibit it. And this is a different kind of a work of art, that you do and you know that you are going to demolish it. And we also found protocols about it, because there was a time that they wanted to leave it, but Janco said 'no, I don't mind. I am an artist but it's ok to repaint a work of art." It's believed more murals are hidden under layers of paint, which will further reveal Janco's off-beat humor, such as painting a face on human buttocks.
Andrew Schmertz, Reuters
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1 comment:

  1. They don't know that behind it is a writing of Janco saying "screw you Duschamps!"

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