Jack Martin Rogers – Artist, Philhellene, Father at Anita Rogers Gallery in NYC
Hellas has been enchanting artists, scholars, and writers for hundreds of years. Among them were Henry Miller, was drawn from Brooklyn to Marousi, and Lawrence Durrell, raised in British India, who fell in love with Corfu. In 1962 Jack Martin Rogers, who was born in Warwickshire, England found himself pulled into the magical island of Crete, and this winter some of his paintings – mainly with Greek themes – were lovingly exhibited by his daughter at her Anita Rogers Gallery in Manhattan.
The first thing on the minds of visitors is determining which of the paintings filling the four walls belonged to Rogers. They appeared to reflect a variety of styles and artistic visions, with items ranging from fully figurative to abstract – but they are all by Rogers. “He spanned over 55 years” Anita Rogers said by way of explanation – but the works appear to have been created by distinct artistic personalities. She acknowledged that, and pointed out that was also the case with Picasso – “you would not know his works were by the same artist.” She added Bob Dylan was also like that musically, and Rogers admired both.
Rogers was an avid reader and thus explorer of different worlds. “He stuck with a genre and created within it, then he stopped, Anita said. “He would travel, go to Chania, think about a new style, and he would change. He never copied – everything dad did was original.”
By Constantine S. Sirigos, The National Herald
December 30 – January 5, 2017 Issue
View more on the gallery’s website.
Visit The National Herald’s website.
The works in the exhibition span a period of over forty years, from some of the artist’s earliest work during art school to his final masterpieces. Throughout his life, Rogers continually examined the complex notion of time and its role in the human experience. He believed forward movement and discovery are accomplished through examining history and creating relevance from the past within the present.
NEW YORK, NY.- Anita Rogers Gallery is presenting Odyssey, a selection of drawings and paintings by British painter Jack Martin Rogers (1945-2001). Anita Rogers, the gallery’s owner and director, is the daughter of the artist and was raised across England, Turkey, Italy and Greece, countries that deeply influenced her father’s work. Anita now owns seventy-five percent of his estate. This is the artist’s first major solo exhibition in the U.S. The collection is on view November 16 – December 30, 2017 at 15 Greene Street, Ground Floor in SoHo, New York.
Enjoy live traditional Greek music from 1940’s Greece along with plenty of Retsina, Greek food, and space to dance.