Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Rockman exhibit




Lately I've been going to a lot of art exhibits at various museums around town. Last Friday Max and I saw an amazing exhibit of Bukharan silk robes that were stunning in their complexity and colors. Yesterday I went to the American Art Museum in Chinatown and saw the Rockman exhibit there.
His paintings all were centered on the interaction of birth and decay and natural conflict in general. This played out in a number of pieces in odd ways.

There were a number of paintings that featured extinct animals with modern equivalents in the same swamp or aquarium.
Or industrial themes combining with nature. I rather liked the fetid swamp birdbath.

There was a clarion call warning of impending ecological disaster and the potential extremes that could produce. There were a series of paintings involving a sort of outer space arc of preservation that was intriguing.

If you are in DC you really ought to go see this exhibit. The paintings are enormous and complex. One of the aspects of Rockman that is not conveyed by photos is the depth and contrast of his paintings. The background are glossy and flat while the figures create almost a diorama like effect popping out of the painting with bright colors and gorgeous textures. This diced up bird is actually a real gull preserved in resin His primary early inspiration came form looking at museum exhibits and this shines through clearly.

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