
Artwork Details
- Title
- Untitled (From Earth to Haven/From Haven to Earth)
- Date
- ca. 1950-1960
- Location
- Dimensions
- sheet and image: 22 5⁄8 × 28 3⁄4 in. (57.5 × 73 cm) irregular
- Credit Line
- The Margaret Z. Robson Collection, Gift of John E. and Douglas O. Robson
- Mediums Description
- oil on paper
- Classifications
- Keywords
- Figure group
- Object Number
- 2016.38.2
Artwork Description
Peter “Charlie” Attie Besharo made paintings about intergalactic travel and strange beings. Besharo immigrated to the United States around 1912, from Syria. He was a Catholic, but being an ethnic Arab in predominantly white Leechburg, Pennsylvania, created a lasting feeling that he didn’t belong. His imagery was never straightforward and conveys alienation and searching, the artist’s quest to feel at home in a foreign land. Into these semi-narrative, otherworldly spaces, Besharo layered symbols of spirituality, patriotism, divine protection, and his hopes for peace on earth. In this painting, the artist writes the word “heaven” as “haven”—connecting—even if unintentionally—the spiritual cosmos and an earthly place of refuge.
(We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection, 2022)