Background

Brian Rutenberg was born on September 18, 1965, in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, United States. He is a son of John Rutenberg and Sandra Rutenberg.

Education

In his early years, between 1974 and 1983, Brian studied at private school at Myrtle Beach's Coastal Academy. After showing strong inclinations toward art, he began taking watercolor classes and even conducted his own experiments with acrylic paints. In 1983, Brian enrolled in the College of Charleston, where William Melton Halsey was his mentor. Besides, while at this college, Rutenberg studied under a British abstract painter Michael Tyzack, who became his faculty advisor and close friend. Brian graduated from the College of Charleston with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1987.

In 1987, after graduation from the College of Charleston, Brian relocated to New York City, where he entered the School of Visual Arts the same year, receiving a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1989.

It's worth saying, that, in the early 1990's, Brian obtained the Basil H. Alkazzi Award, which enabled him with a chance to study in Rome, Bologna and Venice. During the time he spent in Italy, Brian examined the works of Annibale Carracci, Bernini and Tiepolo.

Besides, being fascinated by music and philosophy of a Canadian pianist Glenn Gould, Brian attended music history classes at New York's Juilliard School.

In 2018, Rutenberg received an honorary doctorate degree from the College of Charleston.

Career

In 1985, Rutenberg participated in his first group exhibition. It was in 1989, that his work was exhibited for the first time at one-person exhibition, that took place at Francis Marion University Art Gallery in Florence, South Carolina. Two years later, in 1991, the artist was awarded the Basil H. Alkazzi Award, which gave him a great opportunity to study in Rome, Bologna and Venice, Italy, for three weeks, where he studied the works of Annibale Carracci, Bernini and Tiepolo. It's also worth noting, that, it was at that time, that, being fascinated by the 17th- and 18th-century Italian ceiling paintings and the Villa d'Este near Rome, Rutenberg began his River Paintings series.

In 1993, Brian obtained a year-long Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation Grant. The foundation provides supplemental instruction to promising young artists and financial assistance to visual artists of demonstrated talent. The same year, Rutenberg exhibited his works at the solo show "River Paintings" at Cavin-Morris Gallery in New York City. It was also the same year, that the Greenville County Museum of Art in Greenville held Brian's first museum exhibition.

In 1994, the artist began traveling to Canada in order to study the life and career of Glenn Gould, whose philosophy and music fascinate him. He traveled to Canada annually for this purpose until 2002.

In 1997, after receiving a Fulbright Fellowship, Brian spent a year in Ireland. It is from his travels there, that the artist's work became shaped by the Celtic Culture, specifically the La Tene Period, 600-400 Before Christ. Captivated by arabesques of pure abstraction, so powerful in the artwork of this period, Brian began to use a similar merging of forms in his work.

In 2000, Brian had another solo exhibition, which was held at Forum Gallery in Los Angeles. His other important exhibitions include "Brian Rutenberg: A Ten-Year Survey", the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio (2001), "Brimming Tides: Paintings and Drawings by Brian Rutenberg", the South Carolina State Museum in Columbia, South Carolina (2006), "Brian Rutenberg: Tidesong", the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, South Carolina (2009), "Low Dense", Forum Gallery, New York City, New York (2011), "Saltwater", Forum Gallery, New York City, New York (2014), "Lowcountry: New Paintings", Forum Gallery, New York City, New York (2017), "Brian Rutenberg: Lake", LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe, New Mexico (2019) and many others.

It's also important to note, that Brian authored two books, such as "Clear Seeing Place: Studio Visits" (2016) and "A Little Long Time" (2020).

Currently, Brian lives and works in New York City, where he maintains a studio practice.

Achievements

• Brian Rutenberg gained prominence for his abstract landscapes, that are created with the help of colorful combinations of paint and that are, by turns, harmonious and discordant. Rutenberg is also known for his liberal use of oil paint, sometimes up to three inches thick.
  
  Brian is a recipient of numerous honors, including the Laura M. Bragg Memorial Award, the Basil H. Alkazzi Award, the Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation Grant, the Fulbright Fellowship, the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Painting and others.
  
  In addition, Brian's work, "Clear Seeing Place: Studio Visits", released in October 2016, was an Amazon #1 bestseller.
  
  The artist's works are kept in the collections of different institutions, including those of the Art Museum of Myrtle Beach, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; the Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio; the Cameron Art Museum, Wilmington, North Carolina; the College of Charleston Foundation, South Carolina; the Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, South Carolina; the Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor, New York; the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts; the South Carolina State Museum, Columbia, South Carolina; the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut, among others.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Clear Seeing Place: Studio Visits

    ("Clear Seeing Place" is a companion to the artist's popul...)

    2016
  • A Little Long Time

    (The highly anticipated third book by Brian Rutenberg take...)

    2020

• painting

  • A Little Long Time

  • Rain and More Rain

  • Clamdigger

  • Mud Ritual

  • Point of Pond 2

  • Walking Eager Towards Water

  • Point of Pond

  • My Blanket of Shadows

  • Eastern Night 3

  • Pond Sheathed in Ice

  • Shoreline

  • Willow Weep for Me

  • Deep River 4

  • Pine Lakes 7

  • Tangled Lake 2

  • Fern Hill 5

  • Looming Pine

  • Hyssop

  • Moonshoal

Views

Creating his works, Rutenberg uses a warm palette and thick layers of paint in his foregrounds - sometimes inches thick - which contrast with the cooler and more thinly applied colors of the background.

For a long time, Brian has placed primary importance on surface and material. Between 1983 and 1989, he created works, that featured unconventional materials, like cardboard, wire, masking tape, and were fashioned into shaped three-dimensional paintings and environments. In the early-mid 1990's, the artist experimented with puncturing the picture plane with various sized holes in homage to the paintings of Lucio Fontana.

Inspired by artists, like Gregory Amenoff, Joan Mitchell and Hans Hofmann, as well as by the music of Glenn Gould and Celtic culture, Rutenberg executes paintings, that embrace spirituality, love of color and a passion for paint. Although nature continues to be the major theme in his paintings, each of his works shows a brand new approach and vision. Brian draws on the landscape, that he remembers from childhood, growing up between Pawley's Island and Charletson, where the rivers and lakes join the ocean.

Besides influences, mentioned above, Brian also cites Thomas Gainsborough, Eugène Delacroix, Paul Cézanne and the Group of Seven painters as those, who inspired him.

It's also worth noting, that Brian believes, that a painting must address the physical presence of the viewer first.

Interests

• Artists

  Gregory Amenoff, Joan Mitchell, Hans Hofmann, Thomas Gainsborough, Eugène Delacroix and Paul Cézanne

• Music & Bands

  Glenn Gould's music and philosophy (a Canadian pianist)

Connections

Brian is married to Kathryn Rutenberg and they are parents of two children.

Father:

John Rutenberg

Mother:

Sandra Rutenberg

Wife:

Kathryn Rutenberg

mentor:

William Melton Halsey

William Melton Halsey was an influential abstract artist in the American Southeast, particularly in his home state of South Carolina. He was Brian's mentor at the College of Charleston.

mentor:

Michael Tyzack

Michael Tyzack was a British painter and printmaker. He is considered an important representative of contemporary abstract painting. He was also known as a jazz musician.

Brian Rutenberg studied under his guidance at the College of Charleston.

Friend:

Gregory Amenoff

Gregory Amenoff is a contemporary American abstract painter, who employs biomorphic forms in rich hues and thick textures.

Friend:

Walter Darby Bannard

Walter Darby Bannard was an American abstract painter.

Influence:

Joan Mitchell

Influence:

Hans Hofmann

Influence:

Thomas Gainsborough

Thomas Gainsborough was a British portrait and landscape painter, draughtsman and printmaker.

Influence:

Eugène Delacroix

Influence:

Paul Cézanne

Paul Cézanne was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter, whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavor to a new and radically different world of art in the 20th century.

References

• Brian Rutenberg This volume is the most comprehensive presentation of Brian Rutenberg's work to date. It includes an essay by critic and writer Martica Sawin and a foreword by artist and writer Gregory Amenoff.
  2008
• Brian Rutenberg's YouTube channel