Marcel Janco (1895 to 1984) Stamp

Marcel Janco was born in Bucharest, Romania in 1895, where he studied painting with the prominent Romanian artist Iosif Iser. Until his emigration with his family to Palestine in 1942 during the Nazi persecution in Bucharest, he was engaged in many fields or creative activity: painting, architecture, the editing and publishing of a magazine which pioneered new ideas in contemporary art.

In Palestine, after the Nazi holocaust and prior to the country’s independence, Janco committed himself to the country’s struggle for independence as an artist, painting the freedom fighters, the landscapes of the newborn state of Israel, its war veterans and new immigrants against the background of current political and social events. This Israel-Romania bi-national stamp, issued in August 1993, is based upon the oil-canvas painting, “Immigrant Ship” by Janco, completed in 1945, shortly after his immigration to Palestine. It captures the gloom of past horrors and the uncertainty facing the illegal immigrants as overhanging them like a dark cloud, being huddled together in the forefront of the ship. The work reflects the artist’s personal emotional involvement with the sufferings of his people The stamp with an information sheet are enclosed in a plastic protection sheet