Ivan Walter Adler was born in the Czechoslovak region of Austria-Hungary (now the Czech Republic) in 1914 and graduated as a doctor of law from the University of Prague. Little is known about his life before moving to England in 1954, where he established himself as an industrialist and began painting in his spare time. His naïve pictures are largely influenced by German expressionism, with apocalyptic farm scenes as a recurring theme; he held a solo exhibition at the Drian Galleries, London in 1973.
Painter Ivan Walter Adler was born in the Czechoslovak region of Austria-Hungary (now the Czech Republic) in 1914 and graduated as a doctor of law from the University of Prague. Little is known about his life before moving to England in 1954, where he established himself as an industrialist, began painting in his spare time, and breeding pedigree cattle. His pictures are largely influenced by German expressionism with the naïve style of a self-taught artist. Recurring themes in his works are symbolic, apocalyptic farm scenes with cattle. In 1960 he was working at Modern Engineering, Ltd. in Bristol and was living in south west England. In 1973 he held a solo exhibition at the Drian Galleries, London, founded by Polish émigré, Halima Nałęcz. Ivan Walter Adler died near Bath, Somerset, England in 1989 and is buried in Haycombe Cemetery, Bath. His name is included in the Checklist of Painters, prepared by the Witt Library at the Courtauld Institute (Routledge, 1995). His work is not held in any UK public collections.