In Between Stars

Pink, blue, purple, gray—the Milky Way has a redefined look in Theodor Barr's Mother of the Universe. Inspired by astronomy, Barr utilizes media such as tar, acrylic, oil, and lazur colors in order to capture the dark and glimmering essence of the deep space, the fantastic galaxies, planets, white dwarfs, and red giants. "To substantiate I decided to use a unique material that could link the dissimilar realms," Barr says in his artist statement. "Tar, this ancient reminder of life on the planet, became my primary material in transposing galactic images to canvas."
Mother of the Universe exudes the mystique of creation in such an awe-inspiring way that the viewer is immediately engrossed upon the sight of the piece. A red spot in the center of the painting, small as it is, introduces a strong contrast against the relatively dim background. Below the red spot, pinkish cloud-shaped explosions clutter at the lower lefthand side of the painting. Barr is dexterous when it comes to applying multilayers and mixtures of dark cold tar and bright acrylic colors, on which oil and lazurs give the impression of extraordinary outerspace. In tar-based Mother of the Universe especially, Barr has established a secret way of encapsulating the whole cosmos in a 60-inch frame. *
Theodor Barr is an Israeli artist. Catherine Yu-Shan Hsieh is an associate editor at NY Arts.