For more than four decades, Brian Rutenberg has made lush paintings that enthusiastically embrace the beauty of nature. Elegant abstract orchestrations of color, line, and space create a distinctive method of compressing rich color and form into complex landscape paintings, imbuing material reality with a deep resonance of place. Rutenberg’s intention in his work is “sustained meditations on the sheer transformative power of looking.”
Phlox 3asserts the sheer lusciousness of paint and color, an example of how Rutenberg proudly declares a “deep love for excess; moderation simply isn’t in my vocabulary.” The painting demonstrates a physical immediacy and immersion, a manner that integrates the visceral and the intellectual.
Brian Rutenberg, Before Rain, 2018, oil on linen, 40 x 60 in
Brian Rutenberg, Clambank (detail), 2023, oil on linen, 36 x 55 in
Brian Rutenberg, River Diver 6 (detail), 2023, oil on paper, 22.5 x 30 in
A native of South Carolina, Rutenberg's focus on the sense of place is a core tenet of the practice. This philosophy is highlighted in his new commission for the Duke Endowment, entitled The Wild South. Rutenberg’s approach for this significant work stemmed from that used for work in his exhibition Uptergrove at LewAllen Galleries, in which the artist was inspired by time spent in the small village of musical hero, Glenn Gould’s, summer cottage in Ontario. Rutenberg currently resides and works in New York City.
Brian and his wife Kathryn at the unveiling of The Wild South
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