About
Steve Behar is a narrative painter based in San Diego, California. His work has been included in exhibitions at the San Diego Museum of Art, the Butler Institute of American Art, and the Ankrum Gallery in Los Angeles. Trained as a psychologist specializing in testing, Behar draws influence from the Thematic Apperception Test, which presents people in intentionally ambiguous interpersonal interactions. In the 1930s, test makers selected magazine illustrations by artists including Leon Kroll and Harry Morse Meyers for this purpose, leaving interpretation of the depicted narrative to the viewer. Behar's work is also shaped by midcentury media, particularly advertising, television, and film. The media of that era offered Americans a vision of life that rarely matched reality, and his paintings attempt to capture that gap. He creates digital collages from borrowed media imagery, which he then paints.
I am a painter based in San Diego, California. My work has been included in shows at the San Diego Museum of Art, the Allied Artists of America through the Butler Museum of American Art, and is in the permanent collection of the Hilbert Museum of California Art.
I do not take commissions.
I am a narrative painter based in San Diego, California. My work has been included in shows at the San Diego Museum of Art, the Allied Artists of America through the Butler Museum of American Art and is in the permanent collection of the Hilbert Museum of California Art. I was trained as a psychologist specializing in testing; my work is influenced by the Thematic Apperception Test. This test depicts people in interpersonal interactions that are intentionally ambiguous. In the 1930s, the test makers selected magazine illustrations by artists including Leon Kroll and Harry Morse Meyers for this purpose. It is up to the observer to interpret the depicted narrative.
I am also influenced by Midcentury media, particularly advertising, television, and film. Media from this period promised Americans an exhilarating vision of life that could seldom be realized. My work attempts to capture something of that gap. I create digital collages of borrowed media and paint the result.
CV
Education
- 1984–1988I studied painting with Michael Wheelden, San Diego; and Patricia Patterson and Manny Farber at the University of California at San Diego· San Diego, University of California at San Diego