Portrait of an Artist: Sy Mohr (character piece)

'Mohr' than meets the eye
Exhibit showcases artist whose life is as varied as his work
By Mary Alice Bitts
SUNDAYNEWS (LANCASTER, PA.)
June 2, 2002

LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - Noted artist Sy Mohr has seen his share of both triumph
and struggle. Once a successful Lancaster businessman, Mohr lost his business
and home and later suffered a debilitating stroke, rendering him unable to read
or speak.

Then came a turning point: "When I was in the hospital, I got up and went to
everybody in the room -- everyone who was there to support me, because they
loved me -- and I began to touch everyone. And then I started to paint on the
walls," says Mohr, who has since regained his ability to speak.

"I found out I can no longer read, but I can paint. And I paint and I paint and
I paint."

Those paintings exude the color, hope and zest for living that perhaps only one
who has made it through such challenges can produce.

An exhibit of Mohr's work, titled "Contemporary Folk," opens Friday, June 7, at
Lancaster Galleries, 34 N. Water. St. A reception for the artist is scheduled
from 5 to 8 p.m. that evening; Mohr will also be at the gallery from 10 a.m. to
noon Saturday, June 8. The free exhibit can be viewed during gallery hours,
Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
It runs through June 29.

Visitors to the exhibit will travel at light speed over colorful cityscapes and
plains -- some as familiar as their own back yards and some as exotic as a
foreign-land postcard. From the jagged, steamy sounds of an outdoor rock concert
to the colorful streets of a San Juan village to the industrious efficiency of a
bustling Amish farm, all of these scenes teem with the artist's intoxication
with color, pattern and happy activity, as he captures the architecture and
vibrancy of people at their work and in the places they inhabit.

Mohr's large-scale, high-intensity works deliver an intriguing mix of
sophistication and innocence, offering the flat planes, simple figures and
bright palates of the folk tradition, with some dashes of Cubist perspective and
German Expressionist flavor. But then again, his paintings have an energy and
optimism that the German Expressionists never dreamed of, as seen in the quick,
bold brushstrokes; dark, lively outlines; and glowing, vibrating hues.

A cityscape shows layers of skylines, one on top of another, forming a complex
jigsaw puzzle of a city, outlined in thick Fauvist black, and featuring complex
patterns in the gravel, on tiling, and on fabrics.

A painting of an Amish farm offers simpler lines and more understated colors,
but no less energy, as Mohr depicts an active day of farming and chores near
Lapp's Dry Goods. Although the people in this painting do not wear clothing with
intricately designed fabrics, Mohr gives the grass and the ground touchable
texture, and lets some dry, raw canvas peep through, for an added, earthy feel.

Although Mohr is well known for his Amish and Mennonite-themed paintings, these
are only a few of his Lancaster scenes. Pieces depicting a Long's Park concert,
his former Lancaster business and various locations throughout Lancaster will be
on display in the exhibit.

"You can see that he especially loves painting Lancaster, since this was his
home for many years," says Lancaster Galleries' Deborah Fiedler, gesturing
toward several large, Amish-themed paintings. "Everyone who lived here in the
'50s and '60s knows Sy Mohr and his wife."

The owners of Mohr's Fabrics and Mohr's Gourmet, Sy, 79, and Berenice, 75, were
well-known both as prominent local business persons, and also as passionate
activists who fought for the historic restoration and preservation of downtown
Lancaster in the 1960s and 1970s.

Born in the Bronx, Mohr's artistic talents were recognized early. After winning
an art contest at 13, Mohr reports, he met Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred
Stieglitz, who hung Mohr's winning watercolor in his New York gallery. "They
said, "Youngster, you keep painting, but paint in your own way.' And I did. I
didn't stay in New York; I didn't go to Philadelphia; I didn't go to a big
artists' colony. I went to Lancaster, and I painted. And I painted my own way."
Mohr studied at the Stranden and Miller Textile High School for Fabric Design.

Following a tour of duty in the Army during World War II, Mohr designed sets on
Broadway for shows such as "Oklahoma," "Carousel" and "Porgy and Bess." After
visiting Lancaster in the 1940s and "falling in love with the architecture and
the beauty of downtown," Mohr and Berenice, a designer and stained-glass window
artist, moved to Lancaster in 1953, and opened their own fine-textile business,
Mohr's Fabrics, on South Queen Street.

Working in the store by day and painting at night, Mohr became a more visible
member of the community as he and Berenice took a stand against the demolition
of old buildings.

"When big malls like Park City started, and all the people started shopping
there, and (Mayor Tom) Monahan began to put in the parking garage, I fought him
all the way. We wanted to keep downtown the way it was," Mohr remembers. "So
Berenice and I said, "It's time for us to do something.' We decided we would
restore a building."

That building housed the Mohr's new business, Mohr Gourmet, a downtown deli you
can see captured in a wall-sized painting in the Lancaster Galleries show. In
the painting, the viewer is drawn into the a cheery bustle of a busy restaurant,
which is lit up in contrasting hues by the glamour of nearly lurid, Technicolor
delicacies. It is a visual depiction of delicious sensory overload, which is
only intensified by the bold, intricate designs on fabrics that recall Mohr's
training and experience in the textile business. At the top of the work, Mohr's
hand reaches out to the viewer's space and Berenice smiles out in welcome, from
below, as customers fill each table, along the sides.

In real life, however, business was not booming, and the Mohrs' efforts to
invest in downtown Lancaster did not pay off as they had hoped. After losing the
business, the couple moved to Gaithersburg, then Bowie, Md., where they
currently reside.

Mohr's enthusiasm for life -- and for Lancaster -- however, has not dimmed, and
his artwork echoes that ebullience.

"As rich as we were, as poor as we were, we were rich in creativity, we were
rich in having our kids, we were rich in having traveled. We've been to Haiti,
Trinidad, Puerto Rico, Europe -- and we took photographs in all of these places.
And then, in the privacy of our house, I made paintings of these pictures that
everyone can now enjoy," he notes.

This hopefulness and joy, reflected in his works, has generated some positive
response in high places. Earlier this year, his work was selected to be shown in
American ambassadors' homes, as part of the U.S. Department of State's Art in
Embassies Program. The State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg has recently
acquired his painting "Amish Farm" for its permanent collection.

"But wherever we are," Mohr said, "our home is Lancaster; it will always be the
place where I had a chance."
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