Ted Barr

Ted Barr is a painter, published author, teacher, lecturer, curator and gallery ownerbusiness man. In 1980 after his release from his regular army service as a battalion commander, Barr started his studies in the fields that interested him; Symbolism, Ancient Egypt, Numerology, mathematical relations as well as traditional academic studies. He holds an M.B.A degree in marketing from the Tel Aviv University, 1990. In his role as a business man Barr specialized in long term care insurance; in 2009 his book about long term care appeared in Israel.

Barr has written several books, ‘Krombie’ - a children book and ‘Frau Gruber's CampFarm’ which was published in Hebrew in 2006 and translated into English in 2011

In 1995 Barr began his drawing lessons under the Israeli master Shlomo Tzafrir in Old Jaffa where his first exhibition was opened to the public in 2001.

Since then Barr has had exhibitions in New York, Montreal, Palo Alto, Guadalajara, Detroit, Chianciano Terme, Cannes, Paris, Istanbul, Izmir, Cheshme, Hayward,CA., Dallas, Miami and the Burning Man festival in Nevada. A complete list of his art exhibitions appears on his website.

Barr does not sign his name on his canvases. Instead he developed a private symbol that encapsulates his esoteric studies experience, more details can be read at ‘DE – Barr's symbol’ at Barr’s site.

In 2006 Barr begun his experimentation with tar, which led to the development of the multi-layered tar technique that is used in most of his paintings. A combination of tar, acrylic and oil colors with lacquer. In the deep space series there are 15-20 layers in each painting.

Barr's international career had a twist when in August 2008 he created 3 glass statutes in Olle Jonsson's studio in Alfta Sweden Those statues where exhibited in December 2008 at the Fusionarts museum in NYC.

In November 2008 Barr foundedcreated The Current Art Group, an international artist group, a platform for artistic interaction. As of November 2011 the group has about 4000 active members

In May 2009 Barr was invited to Guadalajara by the art teacher Mappy Wereka to deliver a workshop to explain his multi-layered tar technique; followed by another workshop in August 2009 in San Miguel De Allende, Mexico.

Barrs' series of paintings, Cycles of Life was exhibited in December 17, 2009 at the Gebo Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel. The series was also exhibited at the Daniel Gallery in August 2011 and the Ruth Gallery, September 2011 . In June 2010 he was invited to hold an art workshop in Hayward, CA to explain his creative technique. In October 2010 there were 4 art events in which Ted Barr was involved; a solo exhibition at the Israeli Opera house in Tel Aviv, a group exhibition at Ward-Nasse gallery in NYC, delivery of an art workshop at the creative festival in Beit Oren and to lecture about deep space art and the multi-layered tar technique. In May 2011 Barr was invited to the Izmir Bienalle in Turkey followed by another invitation for the Bosporus Biennale in Istanbul. In September 2011 Barr exhibited at the Dacia Gallery in NYC, In November 2011 Barr exhibited at the Luminarte Gallery in Dallas TX. Where he delivered an art workshop as well.

The phrase that describes Barr's vision of life is: As Above So Below. Meaning that human body, spirit, society, world and universe are connected as every star, galaxy and cluster are connected. Those cosmic relations are the main drive in Barr's art.

Painting the celestial sky brings to mind questions of the origins of life. Thoughts of conception, pregnancy and birth evoke similar wonderment of the initial moments of life. At the moment of human conception is the convergence of sperm and ovum. In the celestial realm the “big bang” is a similar unexplained fraction of infinitesimal time that represents infinite energy in a singular space area, the elements of which are beyond human perception. Human beings are designed to grasp all reality on a very limited scale. We are limited by what our sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch can perceive. The micro cosmos is far too small and the galactic worlds are far too vast for my perception but a notion arises, a strange and enigmatic notion, i feel that there is a strong similarity if not connection between the worlds.

Since 1995 when I began painting deep space; galaxies, quasars,blue super giants and supernovas have become my models. In recent years I started to paint a new series of painting inspired by the inner body photography of Lennart Nilsson, his depiction of human formation and the fetus in the womb.

As I explored deep space and the latest images of the HUBBLE telescope, I began to recognize a similarity between the large scale formats of the universe and the tiniest building stones of the human existence.

All that exists moves. As the electron orbits the proton, the earth orbits the sun, the sun orbits a central point in the milky way. There is nothing that stands still in the universe. There is a constant vibration that is at the core essence of every movement, a vibration that has similar shape in the most miniscule worlds as in the infinite galactic realm.

In my art I try to connect these worlds. The atomic and molecular space-time bar and the star-galaxy- galaxy cluster space-time realm. I try to visualize the placements within space and the relations between celestial bodies with the emerging fingers of the new born embryo.

The main notion behind my body of works is, As above so below.

The Israeli painter and writer Theodor Barr was born in 1957 in Romania. Since childhood he was fascinated by the far galaxies and his imagination wandered among the starts. He dealt with many unsolved questions: What is life? How did it all start? What is the relation between light and darkness? Between life and death?

The sky always amazed him, and he asked himself: What exactly is a star? How does it form? What are the brightest stars in the sky?

In 1995 Barr started to paint intensively, and since then he exhibited his paintings in Israel, Europe, Canada and the USA.

Barr’s art comes from inside, influenced by the ‘cores of stars’. Science and art collaborate together. Barr has a large collection of astronomy books. The photographs which were sent by the Hubble Space telescope influenced his latest paintings.

Light is emphasized by darkness. Known and unknown worlds evoke fear and fantasy. Light symbolizes beauty, good deeds and belongs to heaven and god. Darkness symbolizes bad and evil. For many people stars and light stand for many bright glowing lights, in the sky at night. The glowing light typically seen from Earth is caused by actual nuclear reaction, occurring within the stars core.

The nuclear reactions are balanced by the outflow of energy to the surface of the star, which produces the glow.

The star is a massive, luminous ball of plasma. One of the nearest stars to Earth is the Sun which is the source of the energy on Earth.

Curiosity and spontaneity urge Barr to investigate new techniques and media in order to express his search for galactic art. His teacher, Bracha Bienvenida Guy, suggested to him to choose tar as a basic layer for his paintings. Barr works with ten to twenty layers of color, including oil, acrylic and lac lasur. The tar helps the black become blacker and emphasizes his palette of glimmering colors.

The huge abstract shapes start from the core and spread by the brush towards the outside of the canvas. The strokes are windy, stormy and sensual. There are no borders to the paintings, except the frame of the canvas. The movement of the brush is swift, spontaneous and dotty and detailed, just in few places.

Barr developed a new style of abstract art. He lets the brush take him as far as possible. The circles and elypses become larger and larger. The red-pink-yellowish colors are emphasized by the blue-green-purplish dark background, which takes the viewer into infinity. The inside feelings of the painter turn into an insight the observer cannot ignore. The magical trip is endless.

Try to imagine that you hold sand in your hand and try to count each single piece.There are more stars in the universe than individual grains of sand on every beach on our planet Earth. Our galaxy is one galaxy in the universe, that contains hundreds of billions of other galaxies. Our galaxy is round and flat, kind of like CD , or an old 33 speed record with a bulge at the center, a collection of old stars circulating the center of the galaxy around a black hole, named Sagittarius a, at the very center with the mass of 3000 Suns.

The painter Kandinsky chose to paint abstract painting instead of naturalistic ones at the period that nuclear fission was discovered. Barr found a ‘New Space’ since Hubble sent its photos back to earth. Barr tries to ‘mold his paintings’, to ‘stretch his canvas’ and to find the right colors and light and darkness. He uses manmade paints: acrylics and oils, with natural elements: tar and asphalt. The tar dries slowly while acrylics and oils dry faster. There are cracks which penetrate the paintings and they look like old skin of man and earth. His shapes look like floating continents, bands of pearls and circles, and they have curved and soft borders. You can imagine birds, clouds and nests. The bright colors mingle with muddy dark black backgrounds.

Looking, starring and absorbing the magic of far space make a man feel the infinity. The feeling when looking at the sky cannot be translated into words. The feeling of divine magic floats and flies through a silken scarf in the wind.

Magic and science, astrology and astronomy, collaborate together while we talk about outer space. Theodor Barr experiences space through his soul, heart and eyes. He transfers his feelings into his magic paintings.

The big size of the canvas, 110 X 150 cm, and the square ones at the size of 120 X 120 cm. emphasize the endless, vast spacey area. Barr knows where he starts his paintings, but he let himself being captured in the abstract flowing shapes.

The colors are so amazing, sparkling and mixed in a very unusual combination. The cold colors, of green and blue become hotter in his paintings. The red, like the red giants is deep and unique. The white like the white dwarfs, and black like the black holes, are deeper than familiar colors. They look as being mixed by celestial brush. Colors are mixed and used by each artist in an individual way. The way of mixing the hues, the strokes of the brush, and the blending of white and black to the original colors, make the paintings of Barr unique and bizarre.

The observer feels the sensual and total freedom of Barr’s art. The freedom reached after a long experience, after a long research and through a lot of paths he passed in his art; collaborate with long hours of gazing at the starry sky.

Barr is a unique artist. He is not associated with a group of artists, or certain
movement of art. He is paving his own way, tries to find the unusual and unique colors that he experiences from the bottom of his heart and imagination.

Each painting is unique, unusual in the combination of shapes and colors.

Barr does not sign his name on the canvas ,but forms a private symbol, a symbol of two stick men, made up of 35 white dots, which has to do with the number eight In Kabala - 8 relates to eternity.

Judy Bracha
Curator

09/2001 old jaffa, Israel curator s. zafrir

04/2006 tel aviv fighters house, Israel curator s. kleinman

01/2007 neeman towers, tel aviv, Israel curator y. naor

05/2007 sokolov press house, tel aviv, Israel curator m. krimolovsky

09/2007 el-al airlines globus, tel aviv, Israel curator e. Drori

10/2007 old jaffa museum, old jaffa, israel curator n. Meirovitz

12/2007 istanbul art fair via nyarts Beijing curator t. nyego

01/2008 geological museum, r-h, Israel curator r. Sasporta

02/2008 cargo 21 gallery Paris, France curator d. polack

02/2008 horace richter gallery, old jaffa curator r. vaser

03/2008 gora gallery, montreal, canada curator b. gora

05/2008 hertzliya science center, israel curator v. genosar

06/2008 janice charach gallery, detroit curator d. Peleg

07/2008 passion center, palo alto, california curator l. Jacob

12/2008 fusionarts museum, new york curator d. Polack

05/2009 icogallery, new york curator s. Brumans

05/2009 valle real, guadalajara, mexico curator m. Wereka

05/2009 barr technique workshop, guadalajara

06/2009 venice bienalle, new york arts curator t. Nyego

07/2009 barr technique workshop. San Miguel, Mexico

09/2009 opening of de barr gallery

09/2009 chianciano museum exhibit and lecture curator m. gilardi

10/2009 gallery Dennis roman, Marseille, France curator e. Babylon

12/2009 gallery gebo, tel aviv, curator r. barbivay

06/2010 De Barr gallery curator for homage to Frida kahlo, 7 Mexican artists

06/2010 Passion university, Hayward, Ca, exhibit, lecture and workshop

10/2010 Beit Oren, Israel, workshop, exhibit and lecture, curator e. Feller

10/2010 Opera House, Tel Aviv, Israel, curator u. Rosenwein

11/2010 Ward Nasse gallery, SOHO, NYC, curator h. Nasse

02/2011 Ashkelon art center, curator, B. Zeichick

05/2011 Izmir bienalle, curator s. Urgun

06/2011 Igud R-H, curator Dr. s. Heller

08/2011 Daniel gallery, Tel Aviv. Israel, curator a. Cohen

09/2011 Burning man project and film, Nevada desert