PAINTER TOOK HIS ART AROUND GLOBE
John Goddard, Toronto Star
The Toronto Star
November 15, 2006 Wednesday
Nubar Sabag left a trail of paintings across the world "like a comet,"
his son says.
After a long career as a painter, photographer and lover of the arts,
Sabag died Oct. 30 following a severe stroke at 85.
"He left a band of paintings across different places, in homes
and galleries, from Armenia, across the Mediterranean, to North
America," says his son and only child Shahe Sabag, president and CEO
of Toronto-based Dumont Nickel Inc.
Sabag, who also signed his name variously as Sabbaghian, Sabbagh and
N.U. Barr, was born of Christian Armenian descent in the desert town
of Aleppo in northern Syria.
His father Fares was from Aleppo. His mother Arousiak arrived there on
foot during World War I fleeing the Armenian genocide by the Turkish
army. When they married, the couple was poor.
"He started playing violin and mandolin when he was very young,
and sang in choirs," his son says, adding that he would also tutor
others on what he had learned. "Obviously he was driven to learn – a
self-taught, Renaissance person continually absorbing knowledge." By
the time Sabag was 14, his father had died, prompting the boy to
seek work as a photographer’s assistant to help support his mother
and brothers. He continued the trade in Aleppo as an adult.
"When I was a kid," his son recalls, "he had a studio and was the
semi-official photographer for dignitaries and visiting heads of
state. I remember these big two-foot-by-three-foot photographs all
over the place."
Sabag also painted. Exhibitions in Alexandria, Damascus and Leningrad
displayed his work, mostly landscapes, and in some cases awarded him
prizes. Armenian monasteries continue to hang his work in Florence.
His highest accolade came in 1963, at the age of 42, when he was
featured among six prize-winners at the Sao Paulo,Brazil, biennial
art expo.
That same year, he spent time as a guest of Kuwait’s royal family
painting a series of works for an exhibition on the country. The
day before the show was to open, U.S. President John Kennedy was
assassinated in Dallas, Texas.
"All the top dignitaries ended up having to go to special services
elsewhere," Shahe Sabag recalls of that shocking day. "But the show
opened and it was a success."
Soon afterward, the family left Syria, increasingly uncomfortable as
Christians in a Muslim country. Sabag, his wife Ida, and their young
son moved to Beirut as a stepping stone to somewhere else. When Canada
granted them immigration papers in 1968, the three came to Toronto.
"We arrived with $300 or $400, and a big crate with a couple of large
carpets and some paintings," the son recalls.
Within a month or two, Sabag landed a job in the camera department
at Eaton’s department store. For a couple of years, he also taught
art classes at the then Ontario College of Art and for 20 years at
Northern Secondary School.And he continued painting.
"He would paint anywhere," the son says of Sabag’s lifelong vocation.
"He never had a formal studio."
Shahe Sabag says he did not inherit his father’s artistic gift but
that art enriched the whole family’s life. His father’s love of the
arts infected others, too, he says.
One day, his parents were having the apartment repainted, the son
recalls. Sabag was working on a canvas in one room. An Italian-born
house painter was working on one of the walls. Both were listening
to opera.
"And at the end of the day, the painter asked if, instead of cash
payment, he could take the painting?
"I love that image," the son says: Two men working with their
respective paints, and when their jobs were done, bartering their
finished products.
GRAPHIC: Nubar Sabag was awarded many medallions for various
exhibitions from all around the world. His highest accolade came in
1963, at the age of 42, when he was featured among six prizewinners
at the Sao Paulo,Brazil, biennial art expo. Along with a passion
for photography, he specialized in painting landscapes. He left his
artwork in homes and galleries, from Armenia to North America.
Armenian painter Nubar Sabag loved the arts. He died Oct. 30.Along with
a passion for photography, he specialized in painting landscapes. He
left his artwork in homes and galleries, from Armenia to North
America.Armenian painter Nubar Sabag loved the arts. He died Oct. 30.