Untitled, gouache on wove paper, 1974. 1015x662 mm; 39 7/8x26 1/8 inches. Signed and dated in pen and ink, lower right recto * Untitled, acrylic, pencil and oil pastel on wove paper, circa 1975. 1020x642 mm; 40 1/8x25 1/4 inches.
Amar (1954-2001) was born in Casablanca, Morocco in 1954 to a Sephardic Jewish father and a Spanish mother before immigrating to Toronto, Canada in 1957. Although his family could not afford much, Amar was surrounded by the arts in his childhood. In 1974, he received the Dorothy Reid Scholarship to attend Ontario College of Art but later quit after only a few years to commit himself to his own studio and practice. After several successful gallery exhibitions in Toronto, Amar and his wife moved to Brooklyn, New York in 1979, although he would periodically return to Toronto to teach classes at the Ontario College of Art. In New York, he became exposed to New York-based artists such as Willem de Kooning, Barnett Newman, Jackson Pollack and Mark Rothko. His works from the 1970s onward combine Abstract Expressionism with a unique dialogue with Minimalism, a style dominating the art world in the 1960s and 1970s. Robert Rauschenberg's "combine paintings" and Cy Twombly's gestural scribbled works were also of particular interest and influence on Amar.
