Theo Tobiasse (1927-2012) French/Israeli, Jewish Wedding Abstract Artist's Proof. A joyful celebration of a blessed event in his traditional expressive style. Signed in pencil bottom right. "EA" written in pencil bottom left, meaning "Epreuve d'artiste," the French term for an artist's proof, making this a unique piece with details not found in the final prints. 

Condition: Excellent. 

Overall Size: 29 1/2 x 37 1/2 in. 

Sight Size: 22 x 29 3/4 in. 

Théo Tobiasse was born Tobias Eidesas on April 26th, 1927 in Jaffa, Mandatory Palestine, where his Jewish Lithuanian parents had traveled while seeking work a few years earlier. They returned to Lithuania the following year but fled growing social unrest and settled in Paris in 1931, where his father found work as a typographer for a Russian-owned printing press. Tobiasse showed an early proficiency in drawing and painting, and was influenced early on by Raoul Dufy. The death of his mother in 1939 was followed swiftly by life under the Nazi Occupation of Paris, and after his enrollment at the National School of Decorative Arts was cancelled due to new racial laws under the Reich he instead enrolled in private courses on commercial art at the Boulevard Saint-Michel. He fled with the remnants of his family during the roundup of the Velodrome d’Hiver in 1942, hiding in an apartment for two more years until he was finally able to work in graphic design after the Liberation of Paris. He began by producing tapestries, cartoons, theater sets, and window displays, particularly for Hermes rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore. In 1950 he obtained French nationality and moved to Nice to take a permanent position working in advertising for a local company, and over the next decade he began to explore painting more and more in earnest. His first group exhibition was at the Salon des Peintres du Sud-Est in 1960, and after winning the Dorothy-Gould Prize the following year he decided to devote himself solely to working as a professional visual artist. His first solo exhibition in the United States was in New York in 1968, by which time his works were held in galleries and museums from Tokyo to Zurich. His early figurative works gave way to a more personal iconography drawn from his tumultuous childhood, and a visit to Jerusalem in 1970 led to a major concentration on Jewish themes and motifs from then on. Later focuses included poetic texts and erotic portrayals of women, often in pastels, graphite, ink, and other mixed medias, and with growing interest in his work in the United States Tobiasse moved to New York in 1984. He traveled extensively in his last years, creating lithographic series of his works before his death on November 3rd, 2012.

Excellent.