Hebron.

NACHSHON, BARUCH.

Hebron, 1978

Watercolor. Signed, titled and dated by the artist lower left. Framed.

Baruch Nachshon was born in Haifa, Mandatory Palestine in 1939 and began to paint in early childhood. During his military service he herded flocks for the IDF, an experience that imbued in him a love and appreciation for nature which figures prominently in his work until today. Nachshon’s lifelong involvement with Lubavitch Hassidut began in his early adulthood, when he was drawn to the movement by its uniquely beautiful traditional melodies. In 1965 Nachshon was invited to an unprecedented three-hour private session with the Rebbe of Lubavitch, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, in New York. The young artist used the opportunity to share his concerns and misgivings about the role of the Jewish artist and the many inherent conflicts which confronted him. The Rebbe blessed Nachshon with the advice that for many generations the art of painting had failed to find its ultimate rectification in holiness, but that with the help of God he might come to bring about that long anticipated rectification. The Rebbe then offered to fund Nachshon’s studies in New York and Nachshon gladly received the Rebbe’s offer and devoted himself fully to the celebration of the wisdom of the Creator through visual art. In 1967 Nachshon and his wife along with six other families renewed the Jewish presence in Hebron for the first time since the city’s Jewish residents were massacred by Arabs in 1929. Nachshon paints in order to define and to emphasize the presence of the active Divine Will in creation. Each of his paintings can be studied in the manner of a sacred text, providing numerous and vivid insights into the workings of creation and the promises held for the future. Many of his paintings depict a world where all is peace and joy and where the revelation of Divine beneficence is clear to all. Until that time, Nachshon’s paintings offer a glimpse of what could be, of what ought to be and of what will be when the work of humanity has reached its successful completion. (Website).