Seven decades of happiness in local artist's paintings By DONNA REIFSNIDER Special to the Blade-News
For more than 70 of his 85 years, Bowie resident Sy Mohr has been expressing his "hope, joy and happiness" and wishes for world peace through his paintings. And despite some big personal setbacks, he has succeeded.
His success is being highlighted in the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the granting of the city charter to Annapolis. One of Mohr's depictions of Maryland will be added to ArtWalk in Annapolis May 18. ArtWalk features permanent displays by some of the state's most prominent artists.
Recently, Mohr's work, among others, was touted on Maryland Day at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts.
Approximately 50 paintings by Mohr of Maryland towns, cities and landscapes will be on display there through May 9. They include large oil paintings done in bright color and folk art-style expressing the personalities and humanity of local people. In his inimitable style, Mohr has painted scenes from Smith Island to Ellicott City to Bowie, to Baltimore, Annapolis and other venues around the state.
"His work is unique and fun," says Linnell Bowen, executive director of Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts. "Once you meet Sy, you don't forget him," she says of this ambitious octogenarian.
Mohr donated one of his paintings of Annapolis Harbor to the late state Treasurer Louis Goldstein several years ago and that painting eventually led to his recent recognition by city and state officials.
Mohr's first public recognition came from Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia in New York when Mohr, a native of the Bronx, was only 13.
With only some spare study of art, Mohr, the son of Russian immigrants, went on to develop his own style, encouraged by Alfred Stieglitz and Georgia O'Keeffe. After his marriage to Berenice Drucker, a Fifth Avenue designer, Mohr moved to Lancaster, Pa., drawn to a people he thought were Quakers. The "Quakers" were the Mennonites and Amish and, Mohr, fascinated, spent his spare time painting them. Today a painting called the "Amish Farm" honors his works at the State Museum of Pennsylvania.
The Mohrs settled in Lancaster and began raising two daughters. They became heavily involved in the town's restoration and began an interior decorator business. Beset by financial troubles, they moved to Bowie around 1983.
The Mohrs both believed deeply in the power and happiness that creative expression could bring, especially to young people, and in spite of running a full-time business, they offered their services to the Bowie community, voluntarily teaching art to children at the local schools after class. Berenice, an accomplished stained-glass artist, taught at the Bowie Community Center.
In 1989 Mohr suffered a debilitating stroke that left him unable to speak, read or write. Profoundly depressed, he battled his way back and found he could still paint. And paint he did. Over their lifetimes, the Mohrs traveled when they could, attending events in the United States, Haiti, Canada, Israel and Ireland. Sometimes Mohr left donations of his work behind him.
One of his most remarkable pieces is an enormous canvas of Woodstock, the 1960s "love-in" Vietnam protest concert, which he attended, taking photographs for a later painting. Like most of his pieces, the work shows his irrepressible sense of gaiety, irony, joy and even the darker reality of peoples' lives.
In 2003, Berenice died. Yet again Mohr pulled himself up and is now attracting wider interest from such organizations as the Smithsonian Institution and the American Folk Museum in New York and is being recognized as one of the foremost folk art painters of the 20th century.
Recently presidential candidate Sen. John McCain wrote in response to Mohr's invitation to the Maryland Hall reception. McCain wrote back to say he would drop by and "study" the artist's work during his recent visit to the Naval Academy. However, the busy candidate was a no-show.
But Mohr is undaunted. In his lifetime, he has produced more than 250 paintings and he continues to add to this collection, daily expressing his hope, joy and happiness.
