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Dream Games: The Art of Robert Schwartz
Dream The Art of Robert Schwartz Robert Schwartz is best known for his meticulously crafted oil paintings and gouaches, which are often no larger than eight inches square and feature enigmatic, dreamlike narratives. Schwartz painted his miniatures, rendered in jewel-like colors with astonishing detail using what art critic David Bonetti has described as a "lapidary’s skill." Although Schwartz began his artistic career in Chicago, graduating from the Art Institute in 1970, his arrival in San Francisco the next year was critical in shaping his artistic output. Influenced by the eccentricity of the sixties and by the emerging gay community, his work became deeply psychological, as he began to examine the contemporary psyche with an unflinching eye for human weakness and vulnerability, and with a dark sense of humor uniquely his own. Schwartz always kept his distance from the contemporary art world, preferring to pursue a solitary vision. Although that choice protected his individuality, it also meant that his art received less recognition than it deserved. Schwartz died unexpectedly of heart failure in 2000. Now, for the first time, over eighty of his paintings and gouaches have been gathered into a luxurious, full color monograph published by the San Jose Museum of Art and co-authored by SJMA Chief Curator Dr. Susan Landauer and international art critic Barry Schwabsky.
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First published January 1, 2004
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January 5, 2011
A Richly Creative Mind Snuffed Out Far Too Soon
Robert Schwartz (1947 - 200) was an extraordinary artist. His paintings he meticulously created may have been small in physical size (most of them measure in the range of 7"X9") but huge in impact. Though not enough has been written about his importance in the art world, some have said 'The emerging gay culture and the social upheaval of the sixties counterculture provided ample fodder for his penetrating and psychological works in which he exposes both the individual's and society's deepest fears and desires.' According to Schwartz's own writings he 'invented a world to reveal certain truths about being human.'
DREAM GAMES: THE ART OF ROBERT SCHWARTZ is a catalogue that accompanied a retrospective exhibition at the San Jose Museum of Art in 2004. The catalogue and exhibition concentrated on his later works and it is hoped that another writer/historian will cover the entire spectrum of his output. The paintings create stories or fables or commentaries that present realistic people in bizarre situations - 'The Thicket' reveals stacked open rooms of an apartment building, each room holding its own story about relationships, spiritual quests, ordinary things gone awry. In others he places nude figures interacting on an elevated plane while below them the world goes by in a meandering and confusing manner. Art critic Donald Kuspit has termed Robert Schwartz a postmodern realist, 'a master at narrating paradox--his works are deceptively clear, as though to disclose the intrinsic connection of opposites by bringing their disconnection into sharp focus.'
Dream Games is written and compiled by Susan Landauer and Barry Schwabsky, with a foreword by Daniel T. Keegan and chronology by Ann M. Wolfe. It is a fine book, but one begging for more information about this tremendously creative artist.
Grady Harp
Robert Schwartz (1947 - 200) was an extraordinary artist. His paintings he meticulously created may have been small in physical size (most of them measure in the range of 7"X9") but huge in impact. Though not enough has been written about his importance in the art world, some have said 'The emerging gay culture and the social upheaval of the sixties counterculture provided ample fodder for his penetrating and psychological works in which he exposes both the individual's and society's deepest fears and desires.' According to Schwartz's own writings he 'invented a world to reveal certain truths about being human.'
DREAM GAMES: THE ART OF ROBERT SCHWARTZ is a catalogue that accompanied a retrospective exhibition at the San Jose Museum of Art in 2004. The catalogue and exhibition concentrated on his later works and it is hoped that another writer/historian will cover the entire spectrum of his output. The paintings create stories or fables or commentaries that present realistic people in bizarre situations - 'The Thicket' reveals stacked open rooms of an apartment building, each room holding its own story about relationships, spiritual quests, ordinary things gone awry. In others he places nude figures interacting on an elevated plane while below them the world goes by in a meandering and confusing manner. Art critic Donald Kuspit has termed Robert Schwartz a postmodern realist, 'a master at narrating paradox--his works are deceptively clear, as though to disclose the intrinsic connection of opposites by bringing their disconnection into sharp focus.'
Dream Games is written and compiled by Susan Landauer and Barry Schwabsky, with a foreword by Daniel T. Keegan and chronology by Ann M. Wolfe. It is a fine book, but one begging for more information about this tremendously creative artist.
Grady Harp
Displaying 1 of 1 review