Untitled (yellow corner) (Primary Title)
Richard Roth, American, born 1946 (Artist)
Over the years I have vacillated between the force fields of Mondrian and Duchamp, closer to one sometimes, closer to the other sometimes. —Richard Roth Roth, a painting professor at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, began his career in the late 1960s when Minimalism and Conceptual Art dominated the art world. Untitled (yellow corner) dates from that time with a nod to the essential modernist form of the grid (as used by Piet Mondrian, Ad Reinhardt, and Sol LeWitt). At the same time, rotation, misalignment, and high-keyed color create a “maximalist” rather than Minimalist painting while remaining within the bounds of hard-edged geometry. Roth’s interest in storefront windows and his knowledge of reverse-glass painting in Medieval sacred art, Bavarian folk art, and the early 20th-century work of Kandinsky and Gabriele Munter inspired him to paint on the back of sheets of glass. Reverse-glass painting allowed Roth to introduce an interactive, reflective element into the conversation about the integrity of painting’s two-dimensional surface.
signed on verson: Roth 1971
Sydney and Frances Lewis Endowment Fund
Richard Roth: Under the Influence, New Paintings and Early Work, Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, VA, January 11 - March 30, 2013
(Reynolds Gallery, Richmond, VA) by 2013; Purchased by Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA), Richmond, Virginia in April of 2013. [1]
[1] Approved by the Board of Trustees during their meeting of March 20, 2013. See VMFA Curatorial file.
[1] Approved by the Board of Trustees during their meeting of March 20, 2013. See VMFA Curatorial file.
© Richard Roth
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