Marc Mendelson was born in London on November 6, 1915, but his Belgian father moved with the family to Antwerp, Belgium, in 1922. He studied at the Institut supérieur des beaux-arts from 1934 to 1939, and his first solo exhibition took place in 1942 at Salle Lamorinière, Antwerp. Mendelson was a founding member of the avant-garde group Jeune Peinture Belge (also known as Jonge Belgische Schilderkunst, young Belgian painters, 1945–48). Aiming to promote the progressive work of young Belgian artists in the immediate post–World War II period, the group’s main exhibition took place in 1947 at the Palais des beaux-arts, Brussels. Mendelson subsequently showed at the Venice Biennale (1948) and the São Paulo Biennial (1951, 1953), and he received an honorable mention at the Carnegie International, Pittsburgh (1952). He was also included in Younger European Painters: A Selection (1953–54) at the Guggenheim Museum.
