Arnold Sharrad

Arnold Sharrad was born in Odessa, Ukraine then part of the Soviet Union in 1946. He left for the United States in 1974. Sharrad lived like a hermit in his Brooklyn apartment content to work for himself, unwilling to engage in the hectic art gallery scene of New York. To supplement his income, he was employed over the years in a number of art related jobs, especially as a restorer. While working for a firm in 1980, he met Salvador Dali who admired his work, signed Sharrad’s palette, and was photographed with him. Sharrad’s style and subject matter evolved throughout his career in New York, from simple abstract still-lifes and portraits, drip painting abstractions, large monochromatic surrealist canvases, to thick impasto impressionistic landscapes and expressionistic subjects.

Characteristic of the majority of Sharrad's work is his immersion in the urban environment. Buildings served as objects for expressive analysis and remarkable insight. His small paintings of Brooklyn streets from the early 2000s seethe with a roiling energy heightened by thick, icing-like impasto.  Buildings are askew, their shapes distorted by some strange force and swaying wildly under a post-impressionist sky. Sharrad’s dynamic cityscapes appear to be inspired by Sautine’s paintings of charming villages. Both artists used paint in a vigorous, expressionistic style creating an anthropomorphic character to buildings devoid of human inhabitants yet vibrantly alive. Exuberant and charming, these miniature urban paintings are among Sharrad’s most delightful creations. Sharrad died in Brooklyn, New York in 2015.

source: arnoldsharrad.net