Emanuel's Story

Some Answers and Articles: Why Now?

I have been asked over the decades to speak about my father. My family and I rarely gave any answers. Like most people who lose someone they love, the grief can be overwhelming. For my mother, it was unbearable to lose the love of her life. When my father passed away, he had one request for all his children. He asked that we move forward and celebrate his life/our lives.

My father asked my mother not to continue the exhausting pace of the art world. For the next 30 years, she learned to live a different life. She loved speaking to groups, friends, and family about my dad but would not sell or promote the small amount of work we owned. Besides her love for dancing, music, golf, canasta, and bingo, she took up gardening, photography, and doing puzzles and was a voracious reader of books. She loved nature, plants, and animals and never said no to a trip to a zoo, rookery, nature park, or waking early to observe birds.

A few weeks before my mother passed, she spoke to me about her recurring visions/dreams. She said she saw me promoting my father's art but gave no explanation. In my family - we think of her words as planting a seed. I did not know we would lose her soon after, but I thought about what she said. My mom did not repeat herself unless she was making a point. She was passing the torch to me to reintroduce my father. Discovering Emanuel Schary is one part of the story. Judy Schary, my mom, his wife, manager, business partner and Mother of three is the other part. They were a perfect fit.

This website is dedicated to Emanuel and Judith Schary.

Discovering Emanuel Schary 1924-1994

By David Schary

There are many stories I am excited to share about my father. Gentle, kind, humble, deeply rooted in Judaism, quiet, and patient are characteristics that describe him best. He chose his words carefully and put much thought into everything he did. Every picture was more than a picture, and “every title was as important as the image he drew.” 

My dad was an artist, but he was more. He was a historian, scholar, technician, perfectionist, sports enthusiast, cultured father to three children, devoted husband, and friend to all. What I loved about my father were his values- he never wavered in his beliefs. He remained true to himself. Through his art, he kept Jewish traditions and culture alive.

From an early age (teens), my father traveled to many villages and towns in Palestine/ Israel. His journeys included making friends, learning about other cultures, and trading stories. He painted pictures on the scraps of paper he brought along of everything interesting to him. His paintings and drawings were a diary he shared with his family and friends. At 18, he left Israel with his older brother to fight in WW2. I recently discovered his war diary with incredible drawings- some shared on this site.

After the war, he moved around, but at the urging of his family, he settled in the USA and enrolled in art school (Carnegie Institute Technical School, Arts Student League, Pratt). He worked odd jobs in New York to keep himself fed. He met my mother making a delivery and fell in love with her. She was 18, and he was 27. They dated for three months and married. My mother saw his gift pressed him to use his talent. Shortly after, he found work in advertising with a publishing company. Years later, he built a successful advertising company but was never truly happy. After suffering a major heart attack at age 40, he listened to my mother and his heart and began his next journey. He became a full-time artist and, for the next 30 years, never looked back. My mother was his agent, and she devoted her life to marketing my father. During his lifetime, his works were exhibited in hundreds of galleries, museums, and private collections worldwide.

 My father was meticulous about everything he did. He was deeply connected to his large family in Palestine/Israel and kept diaries, notes, and sketchbooks his entire life. If he had an idea, no matter the time of day or night, he wrote it down or drew it. My family and I are excited to share early sketches, watercolors, and oils that have never been published or shown to anyone outside our family. Discovering and detailing his life made me realize the man I called dad was not an ordinary father. I always knew how special he was, but now I in awe after working on this website. According to many art critics, he was a modern-day Rembrandt, Michaelangelo, Plato, Cohen, and Rashi.

The Print Collection

The first prints my father produced were a small number of etchings (1960-1965). He began studying lithography in 1964-1965, working with Burr Miller (George Miller and Sons), but it was not until 1966 that he published his first lithographic editions. He produced five Lithographs that year and 80 over the next 18 years. The editions were always small, and the demand was great. As much as he loved lithography, he wanted to produce some larger multi-colored pieces. Between 1980-1983 he produced six serigraphs.

Most of his paintings, lithographs, and serigraphs were sold out before release. As far as paintings, they were scarce as it took him months to complete one painting. He drew sketches for every painting and kept photographs and the sketches in files. At the age of 58, he slowed down considerably due to health issues.

Many of his lithographs,1984-86) were never completed. He continued to paint until he was 70 and completed his last picture (3-D Scholar), 2 days before he was willing to be admitted into the hospital. He passed away quietly in between my mother and me. The sun shone brightly through the window, and I heard the angels sing.

I hope Discovering Emanuel Schary will bring you as much joy as I experienced working on this website. In addition to an upcoming book and the sale of the holiday greeting cards, we are also working on museum retrospectives. We will continue to update this website.