Artist captures ‘life moments’ on canvas in S.F. exhibit

Painted on a canvas in bright broad strokes, a young boy stands on a ladder, diligently hanging fruit from the palm-frond ceiling of a sukkah. His grandmother steadies him, while his grandfather works to install a panel of the traditional hut constructed to celebrate Sukkot.

A few descriptive sentences frame the scene, which is just one in a series of 30 paintings that illuminates an American Jew's life experiences.

For Stan Cohen, whose art goes on display tomorrow at the San Francisco Unitarian Center, the majority of his early memories are Jewish. His paintings, like "Big Bubbe Bakes Challahs" and "Grandpa Abram Builds the Sukkah," reveal snapshots of his life.

"There are moments in life that are a little more complex, a little more deep, they have a little more soul," said the Oakland artist. "These moments take place among that otherwise pretty bland line."

Cohen's self-exploratory exhibition, "An Older Artist's Journey," is simultaneously a summation and a new beginning for the 75-year-old artist. It provides a look back on Cohen's life in a visual memoir format, but marks a first departure from his trademark watercolor landscapes.

"The project didn't make me rediscover Judaism, because it was always there in my life. Rather, it ignited the depth of introspection that I hadn't had before," he said.

Cohen believes the paintings portray a life story familiar to that of many Jews in the United States. "I would imagine other people have very similar memories," he said.

Born and reared in Brooklyn, he is the son of immigrant parents who came from two different shtetls in Eastern Europe.

"My mother's parents had...come in 1913 to America, and that home in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn was the gathering place for my whole family," he said.

In his painting "Passover Seder with the Family," the extended family is gathered for the holidays at the Brooklyn home.

He cites the house, which is featured as the setting of many of the paintings, as a crucial factor in shaping his Jewish identity. "This place became like a reference point. I kept coming back to it, and that became the first of the paintings."

Jewish heritage aside, Cohen was raised with a strong secular identity that was prevalent among American Jews of his generation.

"My grandparents were religious, but my parents were Yiddishists, they were deeply involved in Yiddish folk activities. I went to folk schul [school] and I would have gone to middle schul, but around 13 or 14 I declared my independence and decided to study art."

Cohen's maternal side of the family was secular and moved to kibbutzim. They are the subject of his painting, "Israel Kibbutz Volunteers."

This combination of secular but socially involved Judaism "set the pattern for our lives," he said, referring to his life with his wife, Naomi, whom he met at an art high school in Manhattan.

His wife is the daughter of a former cantor at Temple Emanu-El, one of New York City's largest Reform congregations. "That was a bit of a feather in my cap, and it made it easier for my parents to accept that I was seeing someone seriously," he said.

Cohen and his wife first visited San Francisco shortly after World War II. Her brother worked in Petaluma, then a community of Jewish-socialist chicken farmers. The couple decided to stay on.

Faithful members of Reform Temple Sinai in Oakland, the Cohens have three grown children who have remained in the Bay Area.

Before becoming a full-time artist in 1983, Cohen directed the Oakland public school district's art program for 33 years.

His exhibit follows his entire life and includes varied subjects ranging from important teenage experiences, his wedding, his move to California and raising a family.

Cohen is modest about what influence his paintings might have on the public. "I'm no Marc Chagall," he said, "but I am a real person."

"An Older Artist's Journey" opens tomorrow and runs through Aug. 11 at the Unitarian Center, 1187 Franklin St., San Francisco. A reception for the artist will take place at 12:15 p.m. on Sunday, July 21.