Author Archives: Anita Rogers

Portray Magazine: An Interview with Robert Szot

Donnalynn Patakos Features Robert Szot in Issue No. 5 of Portray Magazine

I met Robert Szot in New York City recently. I brought a friend with me, who I had shown his work. She, being an art advisor, thought his paintings are fantastic like I do.

We all know on a screen, art can be perceived quite differently than in real life. I was not prepared for how much more I was going to be taken with Rob’s work, considering I liked it so much to start.

Each painting he would present thoughtfully, hanging one after the next as I would ask to see, and with each one, it just seemed to get better and better.

He, on the other hand, was quite humble about it all and promised me he wouldn’t get a big head. So, let me delineate for a moment on his beautiful work.

Anita Rogers Gallery is a splendid space. Light floods in, and as your heels create an echo between the wood floor and high ceilings; it hushes your tone as you begin appreciating what is displayed before you on the walls.

Somehow, the balance of the colors Robert presents in his works group to form a robust familial association. There is a caprice to the story he unfolds on a canvas. It is considerate. His paintings are striking, cradling complexion, and embody a gregarious nature, much like Robert himself. They seem to change moods, splendidly harmonizing within the environment elaborately put together.

Just getting his rhythm and rhyme of his craft, he shares with us what he has learned and how his art is evolving.

– Donnalynn Patakos of Portray Magazine

 

Portray: Are you emotionally exhausted after feeling like you have worked it all out?

Robert Szot in Portray Magazine

RS: Just the opposite actually. I get quite charged up when I feel like a painting has reached a suitable conclusion. So much tension gets bottled up during the process that finishing a work is a great relief, a euphoric feeling that compels me into the next project. I definitely feel it at the end of the work day though, no question I wear myself out.

Portray: When do you know you have concluded a painting?

RS- This is a real problem for me because I can’t say for sure if a painting is ever really finished. I think I know WHY I feel like that. I have always liked the idea that my paintings could communicate who I am to people who maybe never even had a conversation with me. So I think as I change, the ideas of my work change also. The result is a painting that can never feel finished to me because I am not the same person I was when I made it and my instinct is to want to change it, update it.

Download PDF of interview with Robert Szot

View entire interview in issue #5 of Portray Magazine

Art2Life: Susan Melrath interviews Anita Rogers

Susan Melrath interviews Anita Rogers

View the video here.

Highlights from the video:

Susan Melrath and Anita Rogers

• Anita’s life growing up with father and fine artist, Jack Martin Rogers.
• The values she was raised with and how they shaped her
• Her criteria for choosing the artists she represents
• The challenges of a gallery owner
• Where she finds new artists and what she looks for
• How to find your artistic voice

Download the transcript
Visit Art2Life.com

One Stop: The Slow Slope of Modernism

Organized by Virva Hinnemo & George Negroponte

One Stop: The Slow Slope of Modernism

Pablo Picasso died on April 8, 1973 at the age of 91. That was the day Modernism made a pronounced pivot away from the mythical to the merely mortal; the divine wheel of culture got badly poked. Andy Warhol’s wizardry of mass media made a mad dash to fill the void and the ensuing years witnessed piles of debris not unlike an Indiana State Fair Demolition Derby. It is no wonder that by the mid-1970s TV Guide’s circulation reached more than 19 million while a quarter of the galleries at The Metropolitan Museum were shuttered due to lack of funds and visitors. The cruelty of neglect cast aside many of the most innovative artists of Modernism: Andre Derain, Georges Rouault, El Lissitzky, Maurice de Vlaminck, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Emile Nolde, Jacques Villon, August Mack, Franz Marc, Max Beckman, Vorticism, Pittura Metafisica, and on and on. Without these artists the story of modern art remains wholly unrecognizable and all the while generational amnesia keeps history downgraded to the back seat.

This exhibit of small works includes 30 artists and is taking place 106.9 miles from NYC. It won’t show up on a Richter scale measuring earthquakes but it does make a deep and meaningful gesture towards the 20th century. There is an odd troglodyte tendency throughout all these works along with the assertion that the ancient highway of “Painting and Sculpture’ really does still exist. And yes, it’s paved with ruts, potholes, regrets and splendor. Each and every artist in this show knows these risks because immunity won’t be delivered on a golden platter. Each work is a physical claim taking up the appropriate amount of space while its meaning is embedded beneath a surface of nuanced substance. If given the chance to speak in unison all these works would proudly deliver the same and insistent message: “I’m real!”

– George Negroponte

Mark Webber. Untitled Structure. 2019. Hydrocal and steel. 12″ x 9″ x 8″

October 2019

One Stop:
The Slow Slope of Modernism

Opening Reception
November 23rd, 5pm

Keyes Art Gallery
45 Main Street
At the American Hotel
Sag Harbor, NY

Antiques Trade Gazette: William Scott Reintroduced to the US

In 1953, British artist William Scott (1913-89) made his first inroads into the New York art scene.

Still Life. Pears. 1977. Oil on canvas. 16″ x 20″ © Estate of William Scott 20

James Johnson Sweeney, director of the Guggenheim, went to an exhibition of his work in London and reported to gallerist Martha Jackson: “At last England has a painter.”

Jackson represented Scott throughout the 1950s, introducing him to figures such as Pollock, De Kooning and Kline. In this period, he was inspired particularly by another Abstract Expressionist, Mark Rothko, who befriended Scott and visited him in the UK.

Though the British painter’s international profile grew, it was eventually overshadowed in 1960s New York when pop art and Conceptualism came to dominate the art scene.

Now, Big Apple gallery Anita Rogers aims to put the artist back in front of the city’s art lovers. William Scott: Paintings and Drawings focuses on works from the 1950s-80s, including some prime examples of his Abstracts and domestic still-lifes.

Read the full article on Antiques Trade Gazette by Frances Allitt

Invisible Habitat Interviews Anita Rogers

Home Is Where I Could Get Creative Freedom and Be Anything I Wanted — Anita Rogers

Anita Rogers interviewed by Invisible Habitat

Invisible Habitat: Could you tell us a bit about your life before New York and why you decided to come here?

Anita Rogers: I was born in Dorset, England, and grew up on a Greek island called Halki. The island wasn’t yet on the map when I lived there, and no one knew about it unless you were familiar with that area. My father, Jack Martin Rogers, was a painter and traveled frequently between England and Greece. This was in the 1960s when everyone backpacked and traveled the world to discover themselves. There was much more freedom back then. He met my mum in Dorset, they had me and we lived there for a few years. We then moved to Wales, where we had a beautiful house. My father always liked big houses with lots of natural light and historic architecture; it didn’t matter where it was, whether it had electricity or hot water but the light had to be a certain way.

After years of traveling back and forth, he couldn’t stand leaving Mum and me in Dorset anymore, so he went to Germany and bought Heidi, our 1971 yellow Volkswagen camper. We sold the house to his brother and drove to Greece together. The camper van was my home for a long time. It was amazing.

We journeyed around the Greek Islands during 1981 and searched for a house that had lots of light and was peaceful. One day, as we sailed into the Halki harbor, we saw this beautiful neoclassical house that we called our “peeling palace.” It was a big house with about fifteen rooms and tall columns in the front. My dad immediately wanted to live there and was able to convince the owners to rent it to us cheaply. We called it the “peeling palace” as its white paint was peeling off the walls. It had no electricity or hot water, but it had a lot of light. It was an incredible place.

Eventually, we had to leave Greece to renew our permit on the camper van, and so we moved to Turkey. As foreigners who didn’t speak Turkish, we weren’t welcomed into the community and so we decided to return to England, where we had family. I love England but didn’t enjoy living there. I was bullied at school and didn’t fit in. I just felt different—and not in a good sense. None of us were happy there, so we then moved back to Athens, Greece. Over the next several years, we lived in different cities across Europe. I ended up going back to England for college.

I had always wanted to move to America since I was very young. I instinctively knew I would be happier somewhere more progressive. And that’s why I was attracted to America. I had studied music and trained as an opera singer. When I was a student, you could be an opera singer, a pop singer, or a renaissance singer – but you couldn’t be all those things at once. I had been singing Mediterranean music at night clubs in Turkey and Greece since I was seven – I wanted to be able to sing in all of these ways and not be confined to one type. I always felt America was a country that looked forward, one where I could have creative freedom and be anything I wanted.

IH: What does home mean to you?

AR: New York is home for me. I came here in mid-winter 2003 and the second I landed, I fell in love with the city. I didn’t expect it to be so incredible. The city gave me the feeling that you could achieve anything if you worked hard at it. Greece will always be my home in my heart; it’s the place I love most in the whole world. But New York will always be home for the rest of my life. My apartment here has floor-to-ceiling glass windows, and I can see the Freedom Tower on one side and the Manhattan Bridge and Uptown on the other side. I’ll often stand there at night and feel so grateful to the city. At night, the skyscrapers twinkle with possibilities, and to me, it looks like magic. In some ways, it feels like New York belongs to each one of us.

View the full article on InvisibleHabitat.com

Art2Life: Susan Melrath Interviews Robert Szot

Susan Melrath interviews Robert Szot during his first solo exhibition at Anita Rogers Gallery

Then Again, Who Does? (September 5 – October 12, 2019)

Robert Szot and Susan Melrath

View the video here.

Highlights from the interview:

  • Insight into his current show at Anita Rogers Gallery
  • The process of Robert’s paintings, including his tools and materials
  • His distinct iconography—what inspires his marks and shapes
  • How Robert decides when a painting is finished
  • Challenges he faces
  • Advice for emerging artists

Download the transcript
Visit Art2Life.com

ArtForum Review: David Hockney and James Scott

David Hockney and James Scott

ANITA ROGERS GALLERY

By Sasha Frere-Jones

Anita Rogers with filmmaker James Scott on the night of the opening reception. Image by Jon-Paul Rodriguez

Sasha Frere-Jones reviewed the gallery’s recent exhibition, David Hockney and James Scott, in the October issue of ARTFORUM:

In 1966, only four years out of the Royal College of Art in London, David Hockney was already a star. James Scott, a contemporary of Hockney’s, had received acclaim for short films he’d made with actors such as Drewe Henley and Anthony Hopkins. Scott wanted to make a documentary, something with an artist, so he asked Hockney, who agreed. Scott’s twenty-seven-minute film, Love’s Presentation, 1966, was the centerpiece of this exhibition at the Anita Rogers Gallery; the show also featured Hockney’s “Illustrations for Fourteen Poems from C. P. Cavafy,” 1966, the etchings at the core of Scott’s film.

In the film’s opening sequence, Hockney is shown front, back, and in profile: a mug shot in motion. In a voice-over, an unknown man reads a text by the critic Jasia Reichardt: “Talented painter, superb draftsman, astringent humorist, and entertaining raconteur, as much space in the press has been devoted to his clothes, hair, habits and accent as to his work.” Reichardt defines Hockney’s practice as “grasping in pictorial terms the essence of the grotesque in contemporary life.” The British Council apparently couldn’t handle Scott’s vision of contemporary (i.e., homosexual) life, and asked him to remove the footage of Hockney wearing a sweatshirt emblazoned with the number 69 and the work’s final section, in which the artist reads three Cavafy poems over shots of his etchings. Anita Rogers could handle it, and offered the original, uncensored version.

Read more on ArtForum.

 

Anita Rogers interview with Huffpost

Modern-Day Nannies Are Equal Parts James Bond And Mary

Those who have self-defense skills and know how to ditch the paparazzi are in demand by high-profile couples.

Now that Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have welcomed their first child, they will no doubt be needing a nanny for the little nipper.

But while Mary Poppins was great in her day, celebrities and other high-profile types now look for nannies who also have a touch of James Bond. That’s why England’s Norland College, a prestigious academy for aspiring nannies, makes sure to teach students self-defense skills and how to ditch to paparazzi, along with cooking and sewing, according to Inside Edition.

It’s a good bet that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will consider hiring what some are calling a “Scary Poppins” for their young son from Norland. That’s because Harry’s brother and sister-in-law, Prince William and Kate Middleton, employ Maria Borrallo, a graduate of the academy, as the nanny for their three children.

“These are the creme de la creme of child care providers,” Anita Rogers of British American Household Staffing told Inside Edition. “And they understand everything. In Meghan and Harry’s situation, they are going to need nannies that are looking out for the safety of the children 24/7.”

Rogers was quick to add that not everyone needs a nanny capable of feats straight out of an action movie. “Only this kind of nanny works for this kind of household. Hire the one that’s the best fit for your family,” she said.

View more on huffpost.com

ArtForum highlights the Hockney/Scott Exhibition in its “Must See” List

Hockney/Scott Exhibition Featured on ArtForum’s “Must See” List

July 10, 2019

James Scott and Richard Hamilton at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City, March 1968 © Courtesy James Scott

MUST SEE

James Scott, David Hockney

Films by James Scott, Etchings by David Hockney
June 19 – July 27, 2019
Reception: Wednesday, June 19th, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
David Hockney’s series, Illustrations for Fourteen Poems from C.P. Cavafy with screenings of James Scott’s Love’s Presentation (1966).

ANITA ROGERS GALLERY

15 Greene Street Ground Floor, anitarogersgallery.com

Mon – Sat 10am to 6pm

View More on ArtForum.com

Interview: The Concept of Home According to Morgan O’Hara

Having a Private Adventure Embodies My Idea of Home — Morgan O’Hara

 

Having a Private Adventure Embodies My Idea of Home — Morgan O’Hara 

Morgan O’Hara – Courtesy of Invisible Habitat

As a child I could go anywhere and was able to explore. I had to ride eighteen miles on the train to get to school, and many times I would get off the train instead of going to school and wander around, exploring the mountains and small villages. I had many private adventures. In some way, having a private adventure embodies my idea of home. When I am exploring something new that I don’t understand and nobody interferes—that is home.

My art, the practice of doing it and not necessarily the finished work, has always been my home. The working process has always calmed me. My practice is like a companion, and I am grateful for this. Many people have to go through terrible times and don’t have a way to calm and stabilize themselves. I feel fortunate to have my art practice.

For more information visit anitarogersgallery.com