ECHOS OF SEPHARDIC SALONICA

I am a representational artist. For over fifty years I have created visual images, mainly still lifes, landscape and figures. These images come from direct observation, memory, and invention.

The series of 10 paintings entitled “Echoes of Sephardic Salonica” began in 2019 and was inspired by my extensive conversations  with my son, Professor Devin Naar, about our family’s stories and memories, my readings about Salonica, and my visit there in commemoration of the 76th anniversary of the deportations to Auschwitz.

I grew up in a Sephardic home and I am also first generation American. My father was born in Salonica, Greece. His parents, 5 sisters and 3 brothers immigrated to the United States in 1924—another brother, the oldest, remained in Salonica and he and his family ultimately perished at Auschwitz. 

Most of the family fortunately came to the US because my Nono, my grandfather, Haham Benjamin Naar, was invited to become the first ordained rabbi at congregation Etz Ahaim in New Brunswick, NJ. He also practiced Kabbalah. As a small child, I remember being captivated by his diagrams and pictographs.

In retrospect, the mysterious Kabbalistic symbols and line markings may have played, in a subconscious way, an important role in my art making. It is through the building of marks—whether with ink or with paint—that I create images, reflected in this series and in my work that represents the world beyond.

This series also inspired my son, Devin, to explore the broader history of Sephardic Jews in the arts called, “Sephardic Art and the First Modernist Sephardic Artists”.