R.E.Levine Exhibit Opening Reception 4/30/10, Works on Canvas,Paper and Panel

I saw this exhibit in May, 2007 in Washington D.C. The work is quite beautiful, original and moving. Interestingly, some of the work is on pre WWII Japanese paper that the artist happened upon in a store in NYC. After obtaining the paper Ruth Levine started getting copies of old Japanese newspapers, and looking into Japanese history of the time. Below is the press release. And below that...is a portion of an interview I did with Ruth Levine in which she discusses this work on the Urban bytes blog.

"Please attend the opening of Ruth’s exhibit at the Melwood Gallery at Pittsburgh Filmmakers on Friday, April 30, from 6 pm – 8 pm. R.E. LEVINE: Patterns: echo shift and rescript

Reception: Friday, April 30, 6–8pm
Exhibition: April 30–May 23, 2010, Wednesday through Saturday 11am–5pm

Pittsburgh Filmmakers
477 Melwood Ave Pittsburgh, PA 15213 - 412-681-5449
Gallery hours are Mondays thru Thursdays: 12:00–7:00pm, Fridays: 12:00–6:00pm and during Melwood Screening Room shows.

Patterns: echo shift and rescript is an exhibition of works on canvas, paper and panel by R.E. Levine, artist and educator. Patterns: echo shift and rescript has as its underlying theme the nature of patterns – their iteration, shift, interruption and redirection as well as their function. This exhibit is Levine’s exploration of the decorative, kaleidoscopic, and confounding nature of patterns, in a variety of contexts.

Levine uses Tokyo newspapers from 1931-34 to illuminate the redirection of an entire nation’s pattern – the “imperial rescript” of pre-World War II Japan. Newspaper sticks hold 20 handmade books of period paper overlaid with newsprint, abstract design, and language from Hirohito and the Making of Modern Japan (Herbert P. Bix). A video loop of the pages is overlaid with a history of the incident that changed the direction and re-patterned a nation.

Levine received both her BFA and MFA at the American University in Washington, D.C. An accomplished artist whose work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions for more than 45 years, Levine was co-director and coordinator of the National Endowment for the Humanities; co-director, coordinator and deputy director for programs at the National Endowment for the Arts; and manager of traveling exhibitions for the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C., as well as an adjunct faculty member at American University. She has exhibited her own work locally, nationally and internationally, including Italy and the Czech Republic. Her website is www.relevine.com."

Portion of interview from Urban bytes blog (ie my very occasional interview blog)

Ruth:.........the last show I had there was this year ’08. And it was called "Patterns". I became very much interested in patterns because I saw and owned patterns from Africa, where the patterns change. And I thought it’s only in the West where we make things line up left and right. And top and bottom. African patterns, like life, change and segue into different shapes. So I went at it from a very abstract and geometric point of view.

And then I started thinking about the other meanings of patterns. And found some wonderful paper in a New York art supply store that was simply labeled, " Pre World War II Japanese paper" It was a dollar a sheet. And I bought two hundred sheets. And my husband said, "What are you going to do with two hundred sheets?" Eventually,I decided to turn them into books. The papers were then layered with photo-transfers of Japanese newspapers from Tokyo from the years 1931 to ’34.

I didn’t know very much history, but I did know about the invasion of Nanking by the Japanese was their designated start of the World War II. And what I didn’t know, which I subsequently found out, and what went into these newspapers, was that it really had started much before then. Because the Japanese army had had its appropriations cut by the Emperor, who was afraid of the army's influence.

And the emperor made a big mistake when he cut their appropriations because they staged an incident in Manchuria. Claimed the Chinese had done it, and got their appropriations and more back. And went on to invade a number of places. And that was a change in the pattern of a nation. So I had these wonderful papers. And they were up on old newspaper poles, stuck in tables on a ledge. And I had a video of all of these news paper pages running continuously. And felt very good about it.

Jean: And then also, with the photo transfers on the paper there’s also painting as well.

Ruth: Yes, there’s painting and with different kinds of metallic and non-metallic water colors. And there are stamped images, Benday dots( which are like the dots that newspapers traditionally used). And so some them have a lot of verbiage and some of them have a lot of abstraction. One is prettier but not as clear, the other is clearer and not as prettier.
{For installation images, click here} http://relevine.com/pattern_shifts_rescripts.php

Jean: And there’s a video of the work.

Ruth: And there’s a video, and the title of then show changed to "Patterns: Echo, Shift and Rescript". The rescript was because the emperor, when he realized that the people of Japan really loved what the army was doing, issued what was called an Imperial Rescript. And he said, everything I’ve said so far was wrong. What I really meant to say was that the army has saved our country. That it has saved our honor. It has honored the emperor and we salute the army. So that was the pattern shift and rescript."

Artist Interview With Ruth Levine On Urban Bytes

Occasional contributor, Jean McClung has a pretty amazing blog with in depth interviews with people who make Pittsburgh such a "special place". (mostly in a good way)

She just put up her interview with Ruth Levine, a local artist with both a fantastic life story and great story telling ability.Life Includes guest appearances by Milton Berle,Danny Kaye,Eddy Cantor,The Marx Brothers and Andy Warhol.

Excerpt

"Jean

: You had told me a story about Andy Warhol. And I think you said you got a call....that's how it started?

Ruth:

Yes. In the early nineteen eighties, I was working at a very large Jewish community center in Rockville, Maryland. And although we had some National Endowment for the Humanities grants and we were starting to make a name elsewhere, it was with some slight sense of shock that I got the following phone call: Somebody got on the phone and said, "Hi my name is Ron Feldman. Do you know me?"And I said, "If you’re the Ron Feldman I’m thinking of, no I don’t know you. But I know that there’s a gallery with your name on it in SOHO, in New York."

He said, "Well I’m here with Andy Warhol who wants to talk with you". And that started the first of my series of saying "right" [ as in" yeah, right"] Because I was very dubious that indeed Andy Warhol wanted to talk to me"

Continues here.

96th Annual Associated Artists of Pittsburgh Exhibition

Christine Creuzzi Bartell Nasturtiums: Triptych Blossoms

James Scott Munshour Mask for the Festival of Wrong Beliefs

John Eastman American Foreign Policy: Lost Our Way
Ruth Levine Traversed: Passage I

96th Annual Associated Artists of Pittsburgh Exhibition
October 27, 2006-January 14, 2007
Opening reception: October 26, 6:30 - 9:00pm
Carnegie Museum of Art - Heinz Galleries
4400 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-4080

It has been nearly a month since I went to the Carnegie Museum of Art to spend time viewing the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh 96th Annual. I had not intended to take so long to post this review but finishing Mean Stream had to be a priority.

The exhibit really is particularly strong this year. The range of works represented abstract through figurative, which is something that would be expected in a large survey show. Overall, I would say that the selected works emphasized rich surfaces and textures. Now, don’t tell me about exceptions; there are notable ones.

I got busted taking pictures by the guards, so I don’t have images of all of the pieces that I noted. As a little piece of back story, the pieces for the Annual are traditionally chosen fro actual work instead of slides or digital images. While I was dropping off, I saw these wonderful works by Christine Creuzzi Bartell. I was so pleased to see one of them, Nasturtiums: Triptych Blossoms, included in the exhibit. As with many works on paper, the above image does not come close to giving you a sense of the subtle detail in mark and texture of the actual work.

Ruth Levine is always a favorite artist. In Traversed: Passage I, she has overlapped marks in degrees of transparency, building a rich surface. The work, with its marks arranged in columns, reads as a code or something that verges on language.

In Mask for the Festival of Wrong Beliefs, James Scott Munshour seems to be commenting on several conceptions that American society holds dear; the right to bear arms and the puritan work ethic. In this instance, the narrative of the title is imperative in deciphering the artist’s intent. The work was well balanced with an immediate visual appeal.

Elaine Morris was unable to provide an image of Inscribed. This small work has and intimate and personal quality, assembling clippings and letters into a scrapbook image that feels like a brief look into the trials and tribulations of an individual life.

Scott A. Turri’s Poppies and Heroines is interesting for a couple reasons. It had the kind of flat posterized imagery you would expect in Pop art. The colors that he chose, however, took the piece beyond expectations for the genre.

John Yochem Winberg’s At Home in the Forest combines the disparate elements of gridiron and trees. There was something about the work that reminded me of Eastern European painters, with their delight in twisting the parameters of formal ground/object relationships.

John Eastman has an energetic and aggressive painting style. His abstract, American Foreign Policy: Lost Our Way, dominated the room. In this case, the title did not help me gain entry into the artist’s intent. But it also did not in any way deter me from enjoying his piece.

The 96th Annual is on exhibit through January 14th, 2007. So if you haven’t made it to see the show, there are still a few weeks left. In order to make your visit more enjoyable, you should prepare yourself for some of the many rules of behavior that the museum guards enforce. You may not carry any bag larger than 11” x 14”. You may not carry your back pack with both straps on your shoulder but must walk around with it dangling off one side of your body. You may not take pictures. You may not wear a pick in your hair. Do not, under any circumstance, come within a foot of any area that is currently undergoing installation no matter how enticing it is. Also note that if you do bring a larger bag to the museum with you that you will have to check it into self-serve coin-operated lockers. Bring quarters! If you should violate any of these unwritten rules, be prepared to be followed by museum guards throughout your tour of the museum.