Peter “Peter Charlie” Besharo  

1898-1960

For nearly 40 years, unbeknownst to his acquaintances, Peter “Peter Charlie” Artie Besharo (also known as Peter Charlie Bochero) made art. It was only after his death that 69 paintings he had produced during his lifetime were discovered in a garage he had rented near his home. Besharo was born in Syria and immigrated to the US as a teenager. After working as a dry-goods peddler, Besharo settled in Leechburg, Pennsylvania, where he worked as a house and sign painter. A devout Roman Catholic, he believed church leaders could bring about universal peace, and he lived a quiet and solitary life. The themes of his oil paintings, with their deeply saturated colors and strong earth tones, include outer space, religion and demons, aspects of American history, Armenian folk motifs as well as Besharo’s thoughts, impulses and subconscious ideas. Written texts in Besharo’s pictures underscore their subject matter’s sense of gravity and urgency. Iconic Roman Catholic elements, such as rosaries or candles, as well as the familiar symbol of the all-seeing eye, dimensions, dates and abbreviations are also integral parts of his compositions.  Some of his themes were probably fueled by his interest in such contemporary, headline-making topics as space exploration and the Cold War. ¹