The Franklin G. Burroughs-Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum To Show Brian Rutenberg

Written by Lennie Briscoe Thursday, 25 August 2011 21:10

Myrtle Beach, SC.- The Franklin G. Burroughs-Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum is proud to present "Brimming Tide: Paintings and Drawings by Brian Rutenberg", on view at the museum from September 16th through January 3rd 2012. Artist Brian Rutenberg’s paintings are known for brilliant, multilayered surfaces, that give the effect of a mass of crushed jewels, and reflect his passion for the works of  Renaissance masters of Europe. But the roots of his art are in South Carolina’s Lowcountry, and the Myrtle Beach native son returns this fall with an exhibition at the Franklin G. Burroughs-Simeon B. Chapin Art Museum. Rutenberg will present a lecture on his work on Friday, Sept. 16th from 10:30 a.m. – Noon.

As a young and aspiring painter, Rutenberg sought to capture a unique representation of the landscape through abstraction. Drawn from his childhood growing up along the South Carolina coast, his early memories continue to be a presence in his painting. Inspired by artists like Gregory Amenoff, Joan Mitchell and Hans Hofmann, Rutenberg executes paintings that embrace spirituality, fascination with color and an obvious love of paint. Although nature continues to be the major theme in his paintings, each of his works presents a fresh a brand new approach and vision. Following his formal education at the College of Charleston and in the MFA program at the School of Visual Arts in New York, Rutenberg studied in Rome, Bologna and Venice, Italy; in Canada, and in Ireland, where he found additional inspiration in Celtic culture. Rutenberg’s work places emphasis on surface and material. He is known for his liberal use of oil paint, which is sometimes built up in layers up to three inches thick. Since 1985, Rutenberg has been honored with over 100 gallery and museum exhibitions across the United States, including a retrospective in 2006 at the South Carolina State Museum in Columbia.  His work is displayed in many prestigious public collections, among them the Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio; the Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, South Carolina; the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut; and the Morris Museum of Art, Augusta, Georgia.


The Museum first opened to the public in June, 1997, but was conceived some 13 years earlier by a small group of Myrtle Beach visionaries - artists, art patrons, business leaders, cultural enthusiasts and other private citizens. The building itself dates to 1924, when it was built by textile industry mogul Eugene Cannon in the Cabana section of Myrtle Beach. In 1975, the Villa changed hands again and was slated for demolition. A campaign to save Springmaid Villa began, led initially by Waccamaw Arts and Crafts Guild President Gaye Sanders Fisher. The building's survival, however, was contingent on its relocation: a Herculean effort organized by Guild member and Myrtle Beach Councilman Harry Charles, along with his wife, Jane. Relocating the 150-ton structure required two flatbed trucks for three full days, with a team of city employees, utility workers and every member of the Guild working side by side. The Villa was taken to its new home eight miles south, an undeveloped property whose donation by the Myrtle Beach Farms Company, precursor to the Burroughs & Chapin Company, had been negotiated by Harry Charles. Charles was also instrumental in creating the Springmaid Villa Art Museum Corporation, a new non-profit with a board of trustees charged with converting and later managing the property as a public Art Museum. Following a decade-long fundraising effort, the Museum opened its doors in June, 1997. From its beginning in 1997, the Museum has acquired a number of works through gifts from generous donors, from artists who have exhibited at the Art Museum and through purchases. This collection, though small, continues to grow through the efforts and generosity of our exhibitors and patrons. The Bishop Maps and Prints Collection includes 15 maps from 1606 to the mid-19th century illustrating what has been termed "the golden age of cartography," plus a selection of 15 complementary historical prints. These magnificent historical maps and prints were a gift from Mrs. George Bishop in memory of her late husband, a local entrepreneur, in 1999. Acquired over more than a decade by Barbara Burgess and John Dinkelspiel, transplanted Bostonians who settled in the Lowcountry, their collection includes 21 works by Jonathan Green along with works by nearly a dozen other Southern artists. Among the more than 50 works in the collection are paintings, pastels, photographs, prints and lithographs, sculpture and collage. In 2008, the couple generously donated their entire collection to the Museum where it will be the inspiration for activities that will enlighten and educate generations of art lovers and artists.Among those instrumental in the creation of the Art Museum was a group of local artists formed in the late 1960s, called the Waccamaw Arts & Crafts Guild (WACG), which had amassed a small but growing collection of artworks through purchase awards from annual juried competitions beginning in 1970. Upon the Museum's opening in 1997, the Guild's collection of 46 works by 29 artists of regional renown became its first gift of art and the Museum's first permanent collection. Visit the museum's website at ... www.MyrtleBeachArtMuseum.org

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