Shalom

TOBIASSE

In Paris, set apart from the other children by his strange clothes and Yiddish-Lithuanian accent, he grew up solitary, self-dependent and with a strong, prevailing sense of his Jewishness. Essentially self-trained in art, he emerged from the enforced isolation of the German occupation in Paris with an extensive portfolio which enabled him to find work in commercial fields. Continuing as a commercial artist for fifteen years, he developed his painting style in his spare time, often painting through the night.

Finally in 1960, Tobiasse took the Grand Prix at an exhibition of young artists at the Palais de la Mediterranee in Nice.

After 1962, he was at last able to devote himself exclusively to painting, for collectors and galleries have since not ceased to be interested in his work.

Author and colleague Andre Schwartzbart writes of “the strange adventures of Tobiasse, who sees canvasses surge straight from an Elie Wiesel story …” This reference is apt, with Tobiasse portraying his Hassidic-influenced stories on canvas. Schwartz-Bart continues: “I can as well conjure up in my mind my friend Elie deeply brooding over one of these marvels from which he would eventually derive a tale”.