(LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ) -- The Rider University Art Gallery will present an exhibit of watercolors by Rider Professor and Gallery Founder and Director Harry I. Naar October 31 through November 30. Judith K. Brodsky, distinguished professor emerita with Rutgers University's Department of Visual Arts, has written that Naar's watercolors "...blend the broken strokes of Cezanne, the rhythmic qualities of Van Gogh and the linear marks of Derain into works infused throughout with a charged sensuality."

Reflecting on the exhibit titled, “Watercolors: Observed and Imagined,” Naar says, “I want the image to be rebellious, to resist the eye even as it draws you into space. Everything comes from an observed reality for me. Landscape is a passage, you let yourself enter it, you are pulled into it, and I think I find myself exploring the space I’ve created on the page. For me, marks on a page, whether made with a brush or a pen, are an attempt to transcribe how I move through space. The marks are records of where my eyes have been—they shape space in a picture, something like what Giacometti did in his paintings. All the lines define the space.”

Naar received his BFA from Philadelphia College of Arts (now University of the Arts) and his MFA from Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana where he was a fellowship student and teaching assistant. He also studied in Paris, France, where he met frequently with the renowned painter Jean Helion. He has served on the Rider University faculty for 38 years.

Listed in Who’s Who in American Art, Naar has exhibited his work in numerous one- person and group exhibitions throughout the country and abroad, including The Corcoran Gallery of Art, The Canton Art Institute,The High Museum of Art, The Boca Raton Museum of Art, The USSR Artist Union Gallery. His work is included in numerous private and public collections, including American Council on Education, The New Jersey State Museum, The Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts, The Newark Museum of Art The Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum at Rutgers University and The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Museum at Vassar College.

An opening reception is Wednesday, October 31 from 5:00pm to 7:00pm and artist’s talk is Wednesday, November 7 at 7:00pm. 

The Rider University Art Gallery is located in the Bart Luedeke Center on Rider University’s campus, 2038 Lawrenceville Road, in Lawrenceville, New Jersey It is open Tuesday through Thursday from 11:00am to 7:00pm and Sunday from noon to 4:00pm.  

IMAGE: Rooftop View LBI is part of Rider University’s exhibit of watercolors by Professor Harry I. Naar.