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. [Tobiasse Portfolio]         Theo Tobiasse (1927-) Theo Tobiasse was born in 1927 in Jaffa, Palestine where his father, a Zionist, brought the family from Lithuania in 1925. The father, a painter by trade, found little work there and could not make a living. The family subsequently left Palestine and returned to Lithuania. Jaffa eventually found a job in Paris in 1931. In 1940 Paris fell to Nazi Germany. At the age of thirteen, Theo Tobiasse showed an interest in art. Government art schools were closed to Jews and as a result Theo was registered for nine months in a costly private school. About this time, the Nazi roundup of French Jews began. With the help and support of the Christian concierge, Theo and his family lived in hiding for two years, until France was liberated on Aug. 25th 1944. During this period Theo spent his time reading books and drawing. In the post-war period, Tobiasse developed skills as a successful commercial artist. He ultimately abandoned this profession to devote all his time to painting. Since 1961 Tobiasse has received increasing recognition with one man shows in New York, Paris, Caracas, Tel Aviv, and Tokyo. "Tobiasse's paintings transcend history, blending images into one moment-warping time into the present tense, his past, his dreams, mythology, Judaic legends, biblical stories all inter-twine to become understandable in today's terms," (Kenneth Nahan, cover, "Tobiasse", by Chaim Potok, Rizzoli, N.Y. 1986) [Tobiasse Portfolio | Top]