Renee E Rubin

“Renée E. Rubin Casts Past Masters and Still Life in a New Light”:

Among the self-portraits of living painters, those of Renée Rubin have to be some of the most memorable. . . .

Along with her own self portrait, the show title refers to the self portraits by Old Masters that she has repainted. Far from being “appropriations,” however, these are new interpretations of faces familiar to anyone conversant with art history. . . . [Rubin has translated] them into her own style without altering any of the essential visual information—pose, expression, clothing and so on—contained in the originals. This is quite a feat [which Rubin accomplishes] by virtue of the distinctiveness of her own style, through the layering of luminous oil glazes on linen. . . .

[And] through the sheer intensity of her vision and the meticulousness of her technique, she imbues [her still lifes] with palpable immediacy. . . . Pleasure is afforded by the play of light on various surfaces, which Rubin evokes in a manner that invites comparison with the seventeenth-century Dutch Masters.

Rembrandt sits for Rubin in this intriguing show of portraits and still lifes inspired by the portraits of the Old Masters.

In these provocative paintings, it seems as if each Old Master had somehow eluded the boundaries of time to come and sit for Rubin in her studio. Rubin celebrates her subjects and their place in history with a masterful technique and a fine hand. The paintings are both inventive and hypnotic, and it’s an exciting and rewarding challenge to try to identify each portrait.

Her still life paintings, in which she composes the objects on a miniature stage and uses halogen lights to create dramatic contrasts of light and dark, have a Holbein-like clarity. Skillful glazing and layering attain her jewel-like and luminous colors.

Rubin’s paintings have been exhibited at the Pleiades Gallery and in national juried competitions. In 2006 she received the Audubon Artists Silver Medal of Honor for oil painting, and previously she was the recipient of the Audubon Artists Beatrice Jackson Memorial Award. Rubin has participated in numerous solo and group shows at the Reuben Gallery, and her work was exhibited at the Martha Jackson Gallery and the Guggenheim Museum.

Born in Brooklyn, Rubin has resided in New York City all her life.