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[Epigraph]
Before music there was silence,
and the duet format allows you to build from the silence..."
~ Charlie Haden
I am happy to continue the musical analogy mode
of my last two Scene4 Features:
My artist friend and I are singing a duet,
in visual art terms that
is... by mounting a
vibrant 2-person gallery
exhibition* in New York
City this month. You are
all invited, dear gentle
and learned readers, to
the front row seats --
here at Scene4 virtually, and at our Vernissage on December 8 in person!
My partner in this venture,
Jo Ann Rothschild,
is something of a dean of
Boston color
abstractionists. I met her
decades ago, and as my own
artwork broadened and
matured, we became color
abstractionist buddies,
most appreciative of each
other's painting,
intimate knowledge of art
history, and a quirky
sense of art humor -- plus
a certain weakness for a
particular Boston baseball
team.
I love
Jo Ann's sense of
color and composition, and
admire a constant
intuitive evolution of her
art -- her adventurousness
grafted fortuitously onto
an awareness of underlying
balance. She is a true and
serious artist. Jo Ann has
worked in several mediums,
drawing, printmaking and
collage in addition to
painting, and in sizes
varying from small to very
large, as a few examples
below will attest to.
In
comparison, my own work
tends to carry a heavier
texture, and in a parallel
development ranges widely,
utilizing several distinct
modes of color
abstraction. Jo Ann's
painting relies primarily
on canvas, mine on wood
panel; her paintings have
often involved collage,
while mine utilize
textural mediums to vary
and enliven the surface.
We each sing in our own
voice and listen to our
distinct inner vibration
-- but for both our
dearest expressive means,
our North Star is probably
color!
Rothschild, "John Meets Paul", 55 x 42 in.
(140 x 107 cm), Oil on linen, 2006
Gerstein, "Beyond the Idea of Rightdoing and Wrongdoing", 30 x 24 in., (76 x 61 cm), Oil stick, acrylic, pigment, mixed media on wood panel, 2018
For this exhibition, our initial plan was to select paintings that showed the fuller, more filled, and directly impactful modes of our work, and
accordingly to title our exhibition EXUBERANCE!.. However, as months
passed, the exhibition opening drew closer -- while the world seemed to
insist on descending into a spiral of chaos and willful violence -- and
somehow our exuberance began to feel... well, a little premature?.. Perhaps
paralleling the complexity of the world, the complexity of our paintings
needed to be expressed with a somewhat different selection and a new title.
Yes, a title which would reflect our process, capable of touching the deepest
non-verbal part of ourselves while allowing for an unbroken connection to
history -- the history of art and culture and that divine gift of the freedom
of self-expression... . Our show title, perhaps we found it:
UNFORCED ORDER:
Paintings of Jo Ann Rothschild and Philip Gerstein
While the precise look of our exhibition (at this writing) is yet
undetermined, our paintings will probably face each other across the
shorter span of the gallery -- and are likely to feature these or similar
comparisons & contrasts:
Rothschild, "Little Surprise", 30 x 26 in. , (76 x 66 cm), Oil on linen, 2018
Gerstein, "Evening with the Boys", 36 x 36 in. (91 x 91 cm),
Oil stick, acrylic, pigment, and mixed textural media on wood panel, 2018
Rothschild, "7-5-2023", 30 x 44 in. (76 x 112 cm),
Watercolor, gouache, ink, graphite, & collage on Rives bfk paper
Gerstein "Another Moon, Another Midnight", 40 x 30 in., (102 x 76 cm)
Oil stick, acrylic, flashe, paper collage, drawing & mixed media on wood
panel, 2023
Rothschild, "7-4-2023", 16 x 29 in. (41 x 74 cm),
Oil on canvas
Gerstein, "King of Prussia", 20 x 30 in., (51 x 76 cm)
Acrylic & mixed media on wood panel, 2021
I am thus very happy to introduce Scene4 readers to Jo Ann Rothschild's
work, while we both doubly look forward to sharing with you the
experience of our New York exhibition, blending our separate arias into a
new duet for this auspicious occasion.
* * *
*
UNFORCED ORDER: Paintings of Jo Ann Rothschild and Philip
Gerstein
. Exhibition Opening = Friday, December 8, 2023, 5:30-8pm at
LICHTUNDFIRE, 175 Rivington Street, New York, NY USA 10002 (Lower
East Side). Exhibition Dates: Dec.6, 2023 - Jan.6, 2024.
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