Pinchas Shaar

Pinchas Shaar, born in Poland as Pinchas Schwartz, is an extraordinary figure in the world of art, which reflects his complex life path and his passion to create. In a traditional atmosphere, but with a free education, Shaar grew up in a home where art and creativity were highly valued. His father, who owned a carpentry shop and was the chairman of the Jewish Carpenters' Union in Lodz, and his mother, a housewife from the family of the artist Yankel Adler, contributed to shaping his artistic identity.

Already as a teenager, Sha'ar joined the 'Hashomer HaTsair' movement and began to paint and write, when his works received the same kind of attention as Adler. In 1938, after finishing his studies, he continued to study painting with Władysław Staszminski, one of the most prominent Polish painters.

With the outbreak of World War II, Shaar was recruited into the Polish army and participated in the battles, but was captured by the Germans. After he managed to escape, he returned to the Lodz ghetto in order to rescue his mother and sister, but was forced to stay there. During his stay in the ghetto, Shaar worked as an artist in the Office of Statistics and Air Bully in the Lodz Ghetto. When the ghetto was liquidated in August 1944, Sha'ar managed to get his family into the group that was left to clean up the ghetto, after which they were taken to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

After his release by the Russian army, Shaar arrived in Germany in 1945 and there he began to rebuild his life. In 1947 he moved to Munich where he presented an exhibition at the Linbach Museum.

Later he joins the Eidi Theater as a scenery painter. This period opened many doors for him, and in 1947 he moved to Paris, where he studied at the Grand Choumier for two and a half years.

Shaer visited Israel for the first time in 1949, in Israel he creates sets for the Chamber Theater. In 1956 he signed a contract with Benzit Gallery in Belgium and moved to live there and continued to create for the Chamber Theater. A few years later, in 1963, he bought a studio in Jaffa and opened a permanent exhibition, in the 1970s he moved to live in New York and opened an important exhibition at the Jewish Museum, and he managed to present his works in important galleries and museums, including the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and the Linbach Museum in Munich.

Pinchas Shaar's work

Pinchas Shaar's works stand out for their childish innocence and images that arise from the depths of imagination. The subjects in his paintings reflect his experiences and the encounter with his Jewish culture, and sometimes also with Eastern cultures. Shaar combines sentimental poetry with humor in his paintings, and his paintings simultaneously express pain and joy, playfulness and seriousness.

The paintings are characterized by unique figures, where animals occupy a central place and the people appear with their heads cut in a straight line, which emphasizes their eyes and focuses the gaze on them. The perspective of the paintings loses its meaning, and they resemble magical carpets with bright and varied colors.

In addition to paintings, Shaar also created tapestries, iron moldings, mosaics and reliefs. His works reflect a world where fantasy and reality exist side by side in harmony.

Shaar himself said: "A person must continue the previous generations and build on them. I come to the audience with my world. It did not exist until I took it out of the intestines." His words indicate the importance he places on his personal history and his roots, which lead him to create art that affects others.

When Pinchas Shaar's art meets the viewer, it is not just a painting on canvas; It is a deep experience that conveys diverse feelings and emotions. Buying a painting by Pinchas Sha'ar is not just an investment in art - it is an opportunity to bring a part of a magical and exciting world into your home, which invites you to explore, feel and connect. Each of his creations is a journey to the imagination, which reminds us that life is full of fantasy, beauty and art.