David Schwartzman was born on May 31st, 1948 in the Plateau Mont-Royal, Montreal’s multiethnic community.
David studied at Sir George Williams University, and worked as a consultant in a company for several years where he invested in the development and well-being of employees.
He is retired and rediscovers in his long walks the neighborhood of his childhood with its colorful buildings and multi-ethnic population. For David, it is a real joy to be amidst the architecture where family and social ties took such a prominent place. During this period, he remembers summers spent at the family farm in St. Charles Borromee near Joliette.
He decided to take a course with Heritage Montreal, which inspired his painting, at first shyly and then with more confidence.
His art is a naive art, authentic in its expression, and honest, an interpretation of reality that is dear to him, the world of his childhood.
David has no artistic training as such. He does not know the standard techniques of classical and contemporary painting, but from the outset, he remarkably interprets his vision of things.
His work is a homage to life and it is his image: a serene man, happy, with a large inner life. There is no one place in his painting where darkness or obscurity reigns.
The themes that are clearly described are from the world of his childhood when he looks back on a romantic past. The detailed scenes take place in summer and winter under a cloudy but blue sky as it should in Quebec.
The Plateau is a world in motion where he focuses on the architecture typical of Montreal of yesteryear with its citizens in their daily activities, shops where he shows all the details of grocery stores with their signs, cafes, pastry shops, bike shops. We see the paperboy for La Press, the lady who went to shop on Saturday, children in the winter sliding on the street. The street comes alive under his brush. He delivers intact the atmosphere and ambience that prevails.
The first paintings were those of the Schwartzman farm, where he spent the summer with his family: parents, grandparents, siblings, and cousins. He keeps this time unforgettable.
1. In the canvas “David in the Field at St. Charles Borromee,” the artist participates in the harvest with his cousins, tasks which they were honored to assist and they performed with great joy. Here we see the rural life of farmers reaping wheat or perched on their machinery pulled by horses under a blue and sunny sky.
2. In the painting “The Fathers Welcomed by their Children,” the children are ready to welcome their fathers who arrived at the Schwartzman farm on the Montreal-Joliette bus on Friday, at the end of the week of work.
3. In the painting “Town Hall - Joliette,” the artist depicts the magnificent building that has since disappeared. At the front of the building, the artist has painted the fire trucks of that era and the locals.
4. In “The Outremont Market,” the artist painted fruits and vegetables mixed with the people of this multicultural district: and Orthodox Jewish woman pushing a stroller, children playing, and the neighborhood dog.
5. The canvas “Hockey Players” depicts a typical Montreal winter scene. Children are sledding down the alley, surrounded by a hockey team holding onto their equipment. In the background stands a church with a dome-shaped green roof.
David enjoys painting from old photographs and pictures that he has taken himself. He has a unique style that exudes serenity, joy of life, love of people and architecture.
David has an extraordinary eye for color. It vibrates on the canvas. The richness of red brick buildings contrast with the pure blue windows, yellow lights in the windows or the greens of vases or flowers. Bright colors, however, describe the primarily serene atmosphere...
A photograph in his hand turns into a nostalgic story of a past that touches the eye. It leaves an indelible canvas of Montreal in 1950’s and the life of the community on The Plateau.
The art of David is an evocative art where each object is in its place. His structured compositions are built with the utmost precision and attention. The rectangular and colorful building facades occupy the entire surface of the canvas, leaving just the space needed for life on the street. Canvasses vertical, linear, where the abundance of beautifully observed details are subordinate to the whole picture. A unity of surprising composition.
The quality of his painting, smooth patina, meticulous, intense and vibrant colors. The great detail, the linear design of the architecture, the motley population, green lawns reflecting beautiful summer days or snow white days of winter, revives the Montreal that the artist wants to share with us.
David is an artist with a heart full of love for his hometown in the heart of The Plateau, love that wants to share with us in the brush where the innocence of childhood shines through every moment.
Madeleine Bensoussan, BA Art History
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