Art Rosenbaum Retrospective at Georgia Museum of Art

Saturday, 12 August 2006 07:31

ATHENS, GA — Weaving His Art on Golden Looms: Paintings and Drawings by Art Rosenbaum, a retrospective of one of the South’s preeminent artists, will be on display at the Georgia Museum of Art from October 21, 2006, through January 7, 2007.

Painter, muralist and draftsman, as well as a collector and performer of traditional American folk music, Art Rosenbaum is highly regarded throughout the Southeast for employing his narrative abilities in both art and music.

Weaving His Art on Golden Looms, his first major retrospective, features 51 paintings and drawings from throughout his career, including several large-scale, multi-paneled works, along with easel paintings and preparatory drawings that chart his evolution as an artist.

“This examination of Rosenbaum’s paintings is an attempt to heighten awareness of an artist who eloquently celebrates a vibrant, creative world,” said Dennis Harper, curator of exhibitions at the Georgia Museum of Art. 

Rosenbaum was born in Odgensburg, N.Y., and grew up in Indianapolis. His mother, Della, encouraged him to paint at an early age, and, under her guidance, he completed his first oil painting at the age of nine.

He later enrolled in the famed Art Students League in New York, where he was the only teenager in the class and studied under renowned artist Will Barnet. Rosenbaum earned degrees in art history and art from Columbia University and worked in Paris on a Fulbright Scholarship.

Rosenbaum’s other enduring passion is music, an interest that is frequently interwoven into his visual art.  An accomplished folk and roots musician, he used his first prize money from a juried art show, $25 from the 1953 Indiana State Fair Art Show, to purchase his first banjo.

During his time in New York, Rosenbaum interacted with numerous figures in the folk and traditional music scene, including Grove Robinson, a fellow banjo player from North Carolina.  He also interacted with numerous figures in the folk and traditional music scene, including John Cohen, Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger.

Rosenbaum taught at the Craft Students’ League in New York and at the University of Iowa before coming to the University of Georgia in 1976.  He was named the first Wheatley Professor in the Fine Arts, at the Lamar Dodd School of Art, in 2001.

His move to Athens in the late 1970s also signaled a change in his art as his new home began to influence his work heavily.  His works became reflective of the colors and landscapes of the South, as well as its people.

In one of his most recent paintings, It’s Not What You Think It Is, Rosenbaum captures artist Bonnie Loggins in her home studio in an almost life-size portrait, filling the background with objects that help tell the story of the subject’s life to the viewer.

Weaving His Art on Golden Looms is organized by Dennis Harper, curator of exhibitions.  This exhibition is generously sponsored by the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts at the University of Georgia, R.E.M./Athens, LLC, Foodworks, Yellow Book USA, the W. Newton Morris Charitable Foundation and the Friends of the Georgia Museum of Art.

Visit Georgia Museum of Art web site at www.uga.edu/gamuseum