A New Book by Rubell Museum

Rubell Museum has recently published a new book that catalogs their extensive collection. The book published by Rubell Museum / Contemporary Arts Foundation titled "Rubell Museum Highlights & Artists' Writings", is a 288-page hardcover catalog that features the works along with writings of 80 artists. The Rubells’ collection of around 7,7000 artworks covers major artists of the 20th and 21st century. What I personally liked about the recent publication is that it gives the readers a quick yet sufficient introduction of the brains behind this modern art collection through a timeline covering the power couple Don and Mera Rubell, the father and mother so to speak behind this wonderful family collection. Without them, we surely would have no such collection. It is through their vision and love for the arts that the house of art sprang. I personally see the success of the Rubell Family Collection as a testament to the sacred love between Don and Mera. In a sense it is at its core a love story -> their art collection. Their love for art and sharing what they collected and the artists they discover is really a love story. And, that is what made their venture and art collection's expansion so successful. Love does keep the world going round and round. Love does create growth not only starting with a family as in the case of Don and Mera with their children who subsequently followed in their parents' footsteps and dedication to the arts, but also with their art investment. The collection is really a legacy of these two who multiplied not only in growth through their commercial success but also through their vision and choices of which artists they present to the world. The book's timeline gives one a gist of how humble their beginnings were from their marriage in 1964 in NYC where the couple managed to sustain their early start on Mera's $100 per week salary. Despite their humble start, Don and Mera were intellectuals with big dreams. Don pursued a medical degree and became a medical doctor (OB/GYN), while Mera, a school teacher, ventured into entrepreneurial venues and eventually commercial real estate. Walks in their Chelsea neighborhood back in the 60's introduced them to local artists and with a dedication of $5 a week they started collecting what eventually became a world renowned collection. They followed their heart in whatever they did - and investment in original art did clearly prove to be very smart . Every passing year, the collection become bigger and more valuable. Of course, living in NYC during the 60', 70's and 80's has definitely helped them meeting important artists who contributed to what we now know as the modern American art scene. Keith Haring became a friend of the Rubells even giving them a gift of his art to their son's Jason's college graduation. It was by all means a family affair, even Don's brother Steve who ran the famed club "Studio 54" contributed to the artistic introductions. Through "Studio 54", the Rubells got to meet the "it" artists of the last century such as Keith Haring who became a family friend and later introduced them to one of the most prominent artists of 20th century America, Jean-Michel Basquiat whose work graces the cover of the new catalog (Artwork titled: "Bird On Money", 1981) . The right person at the right time in the right place, Right? Coincidence, no such thing, a gathering destined to be and made in heaven, and the rest is history - art history to be precise. Over the years, the growth led to the Museums’ traveling exhibitions and loan history. The publication provides a recent comprehensive overview of the Rubell Family’s work along with a presentation of the artists they have in their collection accompanied by excerpts from the artists about their own work.

Here are some of my favorite artists from the publication:

Keith Haring writes in his diary on Oct 3, 1989 about his drawings, he exclaims, "all the drawings generate from what happens in the first drawing. I just "let" it happen. Each drawing builds on the "previous" drawing and advances the story." The 20 drawings presented in the book showcase works on paper in ink that reflect the gruesome environmental catastrophe that man subjects mother earth with. In one drawing, we see a hand with a knife stabbing the globe while blood sheds on the side. Haring's artwork, albeit cartoonish and in comic style presents raw truth and a strong message. It is clear Haring was an artist beyond his time foretelling the future of our environmental and natural disasters that we face in our day and age. Beyond Haring's powerful message and art. Martha Jungwirth, an Austrian abstract artist also delivers through her abstract work and in a conceptual poem. Most of Jungwirth's work is fragmented in nature executed through blobs, dots, blotches as if painted by a child, along with a poem written in almost cryptic language - the loose ends somehow though do come together at the end, the dots get connected and merge into a whole, a one, a complete entity of an ensemble of art and poetry. Jungwirth writes,

"to before the rem sleep, in the “temporal lobes of
the monotreme,” my painting is action and passion:
a dynamic space."
Anslem Kiefer, by far one of my favorite artists of all time, is also part of the collection. The German artist's fields of monochrome: grays, hay, snow, chairs, branches, trees with a super perspective leading the eyes to the central point within the horizon line speak to me like no other. A masterfully skilled artist. Much like his fellow brethren from the same era, the renowned German artists: Gerhard Ricther and Georg Baselitz, these giant painters draw from their German identity of a bygone era of war torn / wall torn Germany and bring us a slice of what was and what still is deeply engraved in their memory. The excerpt provided gives a window to Kiefer's thoughts on his work where he states, "Arrogance, too, because, knowing that there’s no such thing as true, objective history, I perceive it as a field of rubble that I can use as material to set up my story, which can never be the conclusive one."
Doron Langberg's work I find to be fascinating in its truth, its depiction of love and its skilled painterly quality. The young figurative artist reverts and draws from previous master artists like Edvard Munch - He points that in his work he "wanted to convey that not only in the imagery itself but also through the turbulent visual language. I was thinking a lot about Edvard Munch’s landscapes when I was making this piece and the ways a landscape can capture a psychological and emotional state."
Moreover, I also find the watercolors of the Kenyan born artist, Wangechi Mutum, to be

ethereal and stimulating. The artist asserts that "the entire body of work I was making at that point was of these characters suspended in between dimensions, between reality and dreams, between being specimens and spirits."

Of course, the collection is rather large and there are many other notable artists to mention as well. Yet, for this coverage I'll resort to these artists whose work is significant and manages to hold a dwelling within the mind. I also pointed them out since as a multifaceted expressionist artist of many years, I relate and share similar thoughts on their approach, ideas and abstract practices in my own work as well. The catalog can be purchased at the Rubell museums gift shops both in Washington, D.C. and also in Miami, as well as in the museum's online shop at this link:

https://store.rubellmuseum.org...

Rubell Museum DC's link: https://rubellmuseum.org/dc