'Figuring' out featured artist Terry Rosenberg
By Courtney Baldasare, Staff Writer
January 28, 2008 | 1 p.m.
An array of fascinating, mysteriously inspired artwork is displayed throughout the Ohio University Art Gallery. The man behind the intriguing pieces, artist Terry Rosenberg, gave voice to his brush strokes as he spoke Tuesday evening here on campus.
Each piece of art is beautifully crafted, with curves and strokes of utmost significance and splendor. For 20 years, Terry Rosenberg has emphasized the movement of dance through the human form, according to his Web site.
The Ohio University Art Gallery Web site on the artist’s exhibition reads, “Rosenberg uses movement as his main concept and form. His unfolding brush strokes communicate the kinetic power of dance as it occurs.”
Every one of his works gracefully and accurately portrays the fluid movements of dancers and other athletes alike, doing what seems to be nearly unfeasible: literally capturing movement in the forms of paintings and drawings. “As my project, I have taken something that has been long thought of as impossible: to paint the human form as it moves; more specifically movement of the human form in a single frame … This connection between the movement of the figure and its rendition plays a key role in the viewer experiencing a space-time continuum in a single frame," Rosenberg said.
Naturally, certain pieces are more obviously portrayed as being influenced by movement than others. For example, in Rosenberg’s “Steffany (George)” (2002), an actual bodily figure can be observed among the varying colors and strokes. On the contrary, Rosenberg’s “Aparna 3 (Ramaswamy)” (2002) masks the influence of human movement on the work. It is this difference that iterates the fact that Terry Rosenberg does not hope to portray the actual anatomy of the human body with his work, but instead the movement of the human body.
Many artists would not come near this type of work, with its difficulty level being ten-fold that of many other art techniques. However, Rosenberg seems to have his own justifiable reasons for which he has chosen to focus on this aspect of art. “I choose to work with people seriously dedicated to movement either by profession or by love of activity. They are not only remarkable to experience, their intensity and focus at best transfers into the painting. Because they are involved in their own movement program, it frees me from directing, [and allows] me to focus on transferring their configurations to the painting,” Rosenberg said. “It creates a situation of continuous unfolding of the body, not knowing what will happen next, forcing me into an improvisational mode that brings a heightened awareness mixed with complete chaos and often nuance to the work.”
The artist is very well expressed. Beneath the diffused, yellow light, clad in a sharp black suit with equally sharp black glasses, he delivered a speech arguably as eloquent and attractively written as those whose careers are hinged on giving speeches. Accompanied by a large screen in the backdrop of the stage which exhibited a slideshow of a collection of his pieces, Terry Rosenberg stood off to the side and spoke of his work, his influences, his projects and art in general. The artist, whose presentation itself seemed to paint its own picture, also answered the audience’s questions with the utmost intelligence and care.
Terry Rosenberg’s transfer of “the ever-changing present” onto canvas is what makes this artist as exclusive and talented as he is. “While drawing and painting in the ever-changing present, structure, space, light, and time collapse into one another second by second. There is no separation of color, light, space, and time. It is quite similar to viewing the bodies’ systems in motion, hard to separate the integrated parts,” Rosenberg said in regards to his largely unexplored artistic technique.
So what exactly drew the artist into this type of work? “I began exploring gesture while making sculpture, painting, and drawing, interchanging ideas and processes in order to streamline the work to get closer to complex thoughts and emotions. This process has continuously evolved into my present form. I found art to be a perfect vehicle to address ideas about perception, consciousness, and humanity as it has been doing for thousands of years,” Rosenberg said.
Though he claims to be inspired and influenced by many different artists, one specific instance seems to have initially intrigued him enough to explore this particular aspect of art. “On a tour of Italy in 1982, I saw Renaissance paintings and sculptures for the first time and was riveted, especially by Michelangelo. There was something about the dynamics of the bodies that he sculpted that resonated deeply. They brought on pure emotion. There is a profound compassion and humanness in his work. I thought about it for a long time, and questioned if these qualities could be explored in a new way,” Rosenberg said.
“Figuring Motion: Terry Rosenberg” has been displayed as an exhibition since Jan. 8 and will continue to be available to the public eye until Feb. 28. In addition to the artist’s introductory lecture, there were a couple of other events that have taken place that further explored the work and technique of Terry Rosenberg, all of which were free.
Performance in progress, as the Ohio University Art Gallery Web site describes, was an event at which “Rosenberg… demonstrate[d] his approach to art making through a live drawing performance. His work merges performing and visual art into a new and unique experience.” Additionally, the Art/Dance Exercise Class was made available to the public.
If picturesque paintings and drawings, unique inspiration, one-of-a-kind artwork and an inimitable combination of colors and strokes sound pleasing, check out Terry Rosenberg's exhibition, "Figuring Motion: Terry Rosenberg," just around the corner at Seigfred Hall's Ohio University Art Gallery.
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