Alfred Rogoway’s Legacy Honored at Lanning Gallery

Thursday, 20 September 2007 20:36

Sedona, AZ - Famous writer Henry Miller once said of his good friend Alfred Rogoway: “He paints as other men must dream.” Sedona’s Lanning Gallery is in a unique position to agree; at the end of Rogoway’s life, the artist made Arizona his home and Lanning his gallery. On October 5th, from 5 to 8 p.m., Lanning Gallery will honor the timeless Expressionist paintings of this late artist (1900-1990) in an exhibition called “Legacy.”

When the artist’s daughter showed gallery owner Peggy Lanning a portfolio of her father’s work, Lanning owned only her first gallery - of Native American art. She knew nothing of Rogoway’s long history: his early triumphs in California; his mark on the New Mexico art scene of the 1940s; his acclaim from NY’s Museum of Modern Art exhibiting next to Pollack, de Kooning, Miro and Picasso. Lanning knew only what she saw in front of her and the images of Rogoway’s soulful paintings were enough to send her traveling to meet the artist himself and see his original work.

Lanning returned home and founded her eponymous gallery to showcase Rogoway. The renowned, now 21-year-old, Classic and Contemporary art gallery is proud of its most unique genesis. “His work spoke for itself,” Lanning recalls, “Rog’s character was all there on his canvases, larger than life.” She remembers the summer Rogoway stayed in Sedona, already in his late 80s the artist drove his old yellow Volkswagon Beetle to picnic lunches with her staff. “He loved women,” Lanning says, “he could be very devious and none of us were safe! He loved to dance and drink and laugh.” She adds, “At the shows the gallery held for Rog during his lifetime he was tremendously moved that people could remain so interested in his work.”

Rogoway lived and painted all over the world and made his home in Mijas, Spain for over two decades. Five years ago, while traveling in Spain, Lanning visited the artist’s former home in the small mountaintop artists’ community. “The road his home was on is named for him,” says Lanning. “Many townspeople still remember him and I had the chance to meet some of his close friends and view their collections of Rogs. Even the elegant hotel in which we stayed had his paintings hanging in their lobby.”

The New Yorker has said of Rogoway’s paintings: “A cheerful mingling of the expressionistic and the naïve.” The New York Times has said: “His people inhabit a dreamy never-never land made very colorful.” World of Art has said: “Compassion plus form are embodied in [Rogoway’s] paintings . . . and convince us again of his stature.” Lanning Gallery, Hozho Center, 431 Hwy 179, Sedona, AZ 928-282-6865 or www.lanninggallery.com .