Additional Images

Provenance:

Purchased directly from the artist

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JAN MENSES (1933 - ), R.C.A.

“My works have dealt with death, the eclipse of faith, the galut. They are shaped by my childhood experiences, real and imagined, in Nazi-occupied Europe, influenced by and rooted in my principles and standards of conduct as an Orthodox Jew in the post-holocaust/pre-messianic era. They are an attempt to translate these experiences into visual contemporary forms (imagery conflicts and reconciliations of conflict in order to ascend from the personal/specific to the universal/general). They are a lament, an elegy, a denial and confirmation, an expression of the attitude of the soul in its debasement and dignity towards its Creator; a striving towards serenity in anticipation of the redemption; a form of prayer”.

- Jan Menses -

Jan Menses was born and raised in Rotterdam in 1933. The memories of growing up through the atrocities that he witnessed during the Second World War are embedded in him and are explored in his art. Menses studied etching and lithography at the Rotterdam Art Academy, and went on to complete his military service as an officer in the Royal Dutch Air Force. He travelled extensively afterwards through Europe and Morocco. It was while in Morocco that he was deeply influenced by the mystical spirituality of the Jewish community that led to his conversion to Tora. He abandoned his early colorful, expressionistic style and embarked on a progression of cycles of Judaic and cabalistic inspired work.
Menses and his wife immigrated to Montreal, Quebec, in 1960, where he began his first thematic series, Diabolica, a set of 165 etchings. Throughout the next twenty-five years, produced three other series: Kaddish, dealing with the concentration camps; Klippoth, a study on the various facets of evil; and Tikkun, inspired by the theme of messianic redemption. His first solo exhibition in 1961 was held at the Jewish Public Library in Montreal, and he has since participated in over 250 solo and group exhibitions throughout the world, including at the Guggenheim and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and at The Victoria and Albert Museum in London, to name but a few. His work is included in over eighty major art institutions and museums worldwide, as well as many private and corporate collections. He is also the recipient of major awards, and was elected a member the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. Menses lives in Tzfat, Israel, where he owns a gallery.

Selected Corporate, Private and Public Collections

Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston, ON
Art Gallery of Hamilton, ON
Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, NS
Art Institute of Chicago, IL
Banque d’Oeuvres d’Art du Quebec,
Bar Ilan University Collection, Tel Aviv, Israel
Boymans-Van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam, Holland
Bronfman Museum, Montreal, QC
Brooklyn Museum, NY
C.I.L. Collection, Montreal, QC
Cadillac-Fairview Collection, Montreal, QC
Canada Council Art Bank, Ottawa, ON
CBC Collection, Montreal, QC
Canadian Jewish Congress Museum, Montreal, QC
Cemp Collection, Montreal, QC
City of Safed, Israel
Cleveland Museum of Art, OH
Collection Rishon LeZion, Jerusalem, Israel
Concordia University, Montreal, QC
Confederation Art Museum, Charlottetown, PEI
David Giles Carter Collection, New Haven, CT
Department of External Affairs, Ottawa, ON
Detroit Institute of Arts, MI
Esperanza Gallery Collection, Montreal, QC 
Haifa Museum of Modern Art, Haifa, Israel
Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel
Holocaust Memorial Centre Montreal, QC
Holocaust Remembrance Centre, Toronto, ON
Indianapolis Museum of Art, MN
Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
Jewish Public Library, Montreal, QC
Jonathan Edwards College, New Haven, CT
Kitchener / Waterloo Museum, ON
Lavalin Collection Montreal, QC
Loto Quebec Collection, Montreal, QC
Malchi Collection of Art, Jerusalem, Israel
McGill University Collection, Montreal, QC
Mead Art Museum, Amherst, MS

Ministère des Communautés Culturelles et de l’Immigration du Québec, QC
Mira Godard Collection of Contemporary Art, Toronto, ON
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, QC

Musee d’ Art Contemporain, Montreal, QC
Musée d’art contemporain de Montreal, QC
Musée du Québec, QC
Museo Ciani di Villa Caccia; Lugano, Italy
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, ON

Olympia & York Collection, Toronto, ON
Owens Art Museum, Sackville, NB
Panstwowe Muzeum Na-Majdanku, Lublin, Poland
Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA
Pushkin Museum, Moscow, Russia
Rhode Island School of Design, RI
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Holland
Rose Art Museum, Waltham, MA
Shalom Hartman Institute, Jerusalem, Israel
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Holland
Strassburger College, Israel
The Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, NH
The Gallery, Stratford, CT
The London Regional Art Museum, London, England
The New York Public Library;
The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, ON
Thomas More Inst., Montreal, QC
Université de Montreal, QC
University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
University of Cape Breton, Sydney, NS
University of New Hampshire, NH
Vatican Museum, Rome, Italy
Victoria and Albert, London, England
Worcester Art Museum, Worcester,, MA
Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial, Jerusalem, Israel
Yale University., New Haven, CT
Yivo Institute, New York, NY


Selected Solo Exhibitions

2004 Bezalel – Artist Academy, Jerusalem
1999 The DBD Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
1998-1999 Nora Gallery, Jerusalem, Israel
1996-1997 Blom & Dorn Gallery, Hartford, CT
1995-1996 Nora Gallery, Jerusalem, Israel
1994 Safed Gallery / Museum: Menses Hamaayan Haradum;
1994 Gallery Har Nof, Jerusalem, Israel
1992 Blom & Dorn Gallery, Hartford, CT
1991 Galerie La Magie D’Art, Toronto, ON
1989 Young Israel of Montreal, QC
1989 Gallery Hamaayan Haradum-Safed, Israel
1988-1989 Esperanza Gall., Montreal, QC
1987 Wolfson Community Ctr., Safed, Israel
1987 -1988 Mayanot Gallery, Jerusalem, Israel
1986-1987 Congregation Shaar Hashomayim, Westmount, QC
1985 Marywood College Museum, Scranton, PA
1994-1986 Blom & Dorn Gallery, New York, NY
1985-1991 Blom & Dorn Gallery, New York, NY
1984 Saidye Bronfman Centre Museum, Montreal, QC
1984 Agnès Etherington Art Centre, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON
1983 Mead Art Museum, Amherst, MA
1983 Galerie Michel Tetreault Art Contemporain, Montreal, QC
1981 University of British Columbia Fine Arts Gallery
1981 Galerie Don Stewart, Montreal, QC
1980 Elca London Gallery, Montreal
1979 Seasons Galleries, The Hague, Holland
1979 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
1976 (retrospective) Studio Gravure G, Ottawa, ON
1978 Galerie Mira Godard, Toronto
1974 Rotterdamse Kunststichting, Holland
1971-1972 Galerie Martal, Montreal, QC
1967 Gallery Moos, Toronto, ON
1966 Galerie Godard Lefort, Montreal, QC
1965 Delta Gallery, Rotterdam, Holland
1964 Jason Teff Gallery, Montreal, QC
1964 Isaacs Gallery, Toronto, ON
1963 Tifereth Jerusalem Congregation, Montreal, QC
1962 Penthouse Gallery, Montreal, QC
1962 Montebello Gallery, Montreal, QC
1961 McGill University, Montreal, QC
1960 Jewish Public Library, Montreal, QC
Until 1960 France, Holland, Spain, Morocco

Selected Group Exhibitions

1999-2004 Gallery / Museum Hamaayan Haradum, Safed, Israe
1991 Royal Canadian Academy: Quebec Works, Academy House Gallery, Toronto, ON
1990 Ora Group of 8: Israel, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, ON
1985 Concordia University, Montreal, QC
1965 Philadelphia Art Alliance, PA
Participated in over 250 group exhibitions worldwide
 
Selected Links

Canadian Who’s Who

janmenses.com