Brian Rutenberg-Camellia

CAMELLIA new paintings Brian Rutenberg is tied so tightly to the visual impressions of his youth that he has dedicated his career to honoring them. These paintings are another concentrated effort at knowing the South Carolina Lowcountry, where bursting colors are transformed by hazy, hot blankets of humidity. He seeks it out on large canvases, both horizontal and vertical, with color palettes ranging the spectrum. This new body of work is notable because Rutenberg has simplified his compositions and in doing so has pushed them back toward the recognizable. This simplicity yields a clearer depiction: compositions suggest oaks clustered at the edge of a marsh, or toothpick-like pine trees pushing through thick underbrush. They are natural, unmarred places that could be sourced from anyone’s memory. Unlike artists who want to master their medium, Rutenberg wishes to converse with his. He asks questions of his paint and lets it respond: he smooths it or builds thickness with brushes and palette knives, using his fingers to press, push, mold and scrape. He approaches his medium as a sculptor would a hand built ceramic vessel, repetitiously adding and blending. Most of the compositions follow a basic outline: abstract, spindly tree trunks spread over horizon lines that creep from dark to light like a sea transitioning to sky on a hazy day. Colors deepen at the left, right and bottom edges of his canvases, supporting a u-shaped source of light. Depth is created in this vanishing point with velvety, paint-blended cold wax medium which is framed by paint so thick that it physically reaches out, beckoning with dimensional texture.

In each painting, Rutenberg chooses a tone that will dominate the color palette. In two identically sized canvases, Soft Rush and Larkspur , the composition is similar but the palette ranges to extremes; Soft Rush is a study of all tones of turquoise and blue, while Larkspur identifies the hues between citrine and tan, with purples added for good measure. Though Camellia is a thirteen foot long diptych composed of a range of colors, its pink hues drive and organize the monumental work. It is the most comprehensive homage to all the things he loves: color, paint and expansive linen canvas. Each of the painting titles in this body of work is specific to the Lowcountry and coastal Carolinas, but more personally, a majority reference specific plants the artist knew as a boy. His selection is diverse, ranging from grasses ( Soft Rush ) to pungent flowers ( Hyacinth ) to bushes ( Blackjack and Boxwood ). The color that viewers may associate with these title-granting plants is typically not the hue the artist chose, but Rutenberg never promised he would show us what we have already seen. Instead he grants access to a world of color not readily known to us. The body of work that comprises Camellia represents a return for the artist. First, there is a return to recognizable imagery. Although he explored this style in his earlier work, Rutenberg comes back to it fresh from – and changed by – a more abstract period. As a result, what we see now is an anonymous yet suggestive imagery. Second, there is a welcome return to landscape scenes of the coastal south. This is a place that adoring audiences will come to learn Rutenberg has no plans to leave.

Grace Cote