Samuel Rothbort
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Samuel Rothbort (1882 - 1971) was born in Wołkowysk, Belarus. He was born to a family where the father was a scholar and the mother was a breadwinner operating a flour and grain facility. During his youth he worked as a cantor and traveled to various towns and villages, gaining many impressions of life in that era. Poverty as well as the political unrest of the times led to his immigration to America in 1904.
Upon his arrival in America, Samuel Rothbort worked as a laborer and muralist eventually giving that up to become a watchman of newly built homes. While on duty he began molding figures in clay and upon the advice and encouragement of his employer and colleagues he began to take his artistic talents more seriously and pursued this endeavor.
Samuel Rothbort was self-taught, painting every subject in his own impressionist style. His artistic range was broad and he never stopped creating. He was fascinated with nature and his works are filled with his delightful perceptions of his surroundings. Rothbort worked in oil, watercolor, and pen & ink. In the years of the depression there was little money, Rothbort could not afford paint or canvas. It was there that he began carving wood and stone using found materials like driftwood, rails, and old fence posts. At that time the press called it " Fencepost art ".
Samuel Rothbort was a member of several professional associations of artists, including The Brooklyn Society of Artists, Society of Independent Artists, and The Salons of America. In 1919, Rothbort was represented in a group show presented by The Brooklyn Society of Artists. It was here that he met critic, teacher, and publicist, Hamilton Easter Field (1873 - 1922). Field was a leading influence on the development of modernism in the United States, although he remained conservative in his own creative expression. He operated a school and gallery in his home in the Columbia Heights section of Brooklyn and a summer school that he established at Perkins Cove in Ogunquit, Maine. Field characterized Rothbort as exceptionally talented and would serve as Rothbort's patron until his premature death in 1922. In 1952, Rothbort wrote a book on his sculpture, entitled " Out of Wood & Stone “, which he dedicated to Hamilton Easter Field. During the 1920s and early 1930’s, Samuel Rothbort was regularly represented in exhibitions organized by The Brooklyn Museum. Through the 1930’s, Rothbort exhibited his watercolors and sculptures at Grant Studios in Brooklyn. In 1940, he began a 28-year relationship with the Barzansky Gallery on Madison Avenue in New York City exhibiting oils, watercolors, and sculpture in individual and group shows.
A significant expression for Samuel Rothbort's career occurred when he began painting "memory paintings" or recreation of his boyhood experiences of life in the ghettos and surrounding areas of the woodlands and marshes of Polesie. A prize winning documentary, titled "Memories of The Shtetl" (previously titled "The Ghetto Pillow") was shown at the Edinburgh Film Festival. It utilized 215 of Samuel Rothbort's watercolors and became a visual resource for Jerome Robbins play, "Fiddler On The Roof". Another award winning documentary, "The Lost Wooden Synagogues of Eastern Europe" used many of Rothbort's paintings in the film to show life in pre-war Eastern Europe. The paintings helped show the viewers what the synagogues looked like in color. The film was shown at the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. and on Public Television.
Samuel Rothbort died in 1971, leaving behind an impressive collection of paintings and sculpture. His subjects contain flowers, fields, landscapes and other scenes plus over a hundred self-portraits. His work is in many private and public collections, which include the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., The Federal Reserve Board Gallery, and the New York Historical Society.
Member:
Society of Independent Artists
League of American Artists, Inc.
Brooklyn Society of Artists
Brooklyn Watercolor Club
Group Exhibitions:
Peoples Art Guild-NYC 1915 and 1917
Society of Independent Artists-NYC 1917 –1923
1925-1931
1934
1938/39/40
La Boheme-Brooklyn, NY 1918
Pouch Gallery-Brooklyn 1917/18/19
Ardsley Studios-Brooklyn 1919 (Feb. and Dec.)
Pratt Institute Art Gallery-Brooklyn 1919 (March and Nov.)
Salons of America-Brooklyn 1922/23/24
1924 (Autumn)
1925
1930
1934
Brooklyn Museum of Art-Brooklyn 1922 Brooklyn Artists
1923 International Artists-Watercolors
1925 International Artists
1927 International Artists-Watercolors
1931 Brooklyn and Long Island Artists
1931 International Artists-Watercolors
1934 Sculpture Show-January
1934 American Artists-Oils (September)
1935 International Artists-Watercolors
Galleries of American Art Assn.NYC 1922/1923
Plymouth Institute (Beecher Gallery) 1923/24/25/26/ and 1936
Brooklyn, NY
Anderson Galleries-NYC 1924/25 and 1930
Painters and Sculptors Gallery-Brooklyn 1932
Art League of Nassau County-NY 1932/33/34
The Forum-NYC 1934
Fifteen Gallery-NYC 1934 and 1939
Municipal Art Commission, NYC 1936 and 1937 (January and May)
Grant Studios-Brooklyn, NY 1932
1932 October
1933 November
1934 February
1934 November
1935 October
1935 December
1936 October
Vendome Gallery-NYC 1938 June
1937 December
1938 February
1939 March
Academy of Allied Arts Gallery-NYC 1939
*Charles Barzansky Galleries-NYC 1940 October
1940 December
1942 December
1943 April
1943 May
1944 January
1945 February
1944 November
1946 March
1961 February
(*Note: Included in every group show 1940-1968. Rothbort’s art was displayed in the Madison Avenue window without interruption, 1940 until
gallery closed in 1968)
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts 1944
Heckscher Museum-Huntington, NY 1963
National Arts and Antiques Show-NYC 1965
National Arts and Antiques Show-NYC 1968
Chevy Chase Galerie-Bethesda, Md. 1964
The Jewish Museum-NYC November 1984/March 1985
“The Jewish Heritage in American
Folk Art” Exhibition
National Museum of American May 1985-August 1985
Jewish History, Philadelphia, Pa.
Spertus Museum, Chicago, Ill. Sept. 1985/December 1985
Skirball Museum, Los Angeles, Cal. January 1986/April 1986
The Albuquerque Museum, July 1986/October 1986
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Heckscher Museum-Sculpture part of March-June 1998
exhibition-Celebrating New York:
A Centennial Exhibition, Huntington, NY
The New York Historical Society, NY, NY Spring 2004
Exhibition of Recent Acquisitions
The Intuit Show of 2004-October
Folk & Outsider Art, Chicago
The Intuit Show of 2005-September-October
Folk & Outsider Art, Chicago
The Intuit Show of 2006, 2007, 2008
Folk & Outsider Art, NY, NY
Works on Paper Show March, 2008
The Armory, NY, NY
ONE MAN EXHIBITIONS:
Grant Studios-Brooklyn, NY 1934-sculpture
Charles Barzansky Galleries-NYC 1940-November
1941-November
1942-November
1943-November-on 2 floors
1944-September
1945-November
1946-September
1954-May
1956-October
1961-October
1965-December
Lincoln Gallery-Brooklyn, NY 1938
Tilden Gallery-Brooklyn, NY 1940
Welna Gallery-Chicago, Ill 1960
Kaufman Art Center-NYC 1964
Kaufman Art Center-NYC 1968
Chassidic Art Institute-Brooklyn, NY 1985-October & November
The Marbella Gallery-NYC 1989
Giampietro Gallery-Self Portraits 1997-March/April
and Sculpture, NY, NY
Morgan Rank Gallery-Paintings 1998-July/August
(Self Portraits) and Sculpture(Stone)
East Hampton, NY
Yeshiva University Museum 1998-January
/Benjamin Cardozo Gallery-
Paintings-Oils and Watercolors, NY, NY
Hollis Taggart Gallery, NY, NY 2003-September-October
One Man Show of Sculpture
Luise Ross Gallery, NY, NY 2003-September-October
One Man Show of Fantasy
Watercolors and Pen & Inks
[edit] External links
[edit] Reference Books
- Out of Wood And Stone by Samuel Rothbort-1952
- Samuel Rothbort-Paintings, Sculptures, Watercolors by Zev Markowitz-1996
- Samuel Rothbort-Direct Carver by Hollis Taggart Galleries-2003
