Polish-born Israeli painter. He was born in the village of Tuchów, the son of a Jewish watchmaker. From 1920 to 1925 he studied at the *Bauhaus, where he became a friend of his teacher *Klee. In 1926 he moved to Munich, then taught at *Itten's art school in Berlin from 1929 to 1933, when he fled to Jerusalem because of Nazi persecution. He taught at the Belazel School of Arts and Crafts in Jersualem, 1935–52 (he was the school's director, 1940–52), and he was artistic adviser to the Israeli Ministry of Education and Culture, 1952–62. From 1965 he spent much of his time in Paris. Ardon's obituary in the Independent described him as ‘Israel's best-known artist internationally’ and said that he brought the country into contact with ‘the leading European art movements of the early Thirties—at a time when Palestine was a far outpost of the Ottoman empire’.