Presented by Leclerc Contemporay

Leclerc Contemporary is pleased to announce the opening of an important new solo show, “The Works of Alexander Rutsch”, presenting a rare opportunity to view this prolific artist’s diverse works in painting, drawing and sculpture in collaboration with his estate. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, February 12, from 6-8 PM and the exhibition will run through April 1, 2015. Alexander Rutsch was a painter, sculptor, philosopher, musician, singer and poet. His life as a romantic is reflected in his work, as he sought to perfect his soul and humanity, "I paint my dreams," said Rutsch."My dreams are color and life. They soar in my head like millions of symphonies. I can never stop building dreams." In 1952, after studying under Josef Dobrowsky, Josef Hoffmann and Herbert Boeckl at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, Rutsch received a scholarship to study in France. There he made contacts and began collaborations with his contemporaries, Picasso and Dali. Rutsch's work, as seen through his mastery of many art forms—sculpture, painting, print-making, and drawing, and a wide variety of other media has been described as "vibrating showers of lines, bold geometries, wounded anatomically rambling scrap-wood skeletons, enigmatic totem figures, and congregations of fetishized, domesticated, and recycled rubbish heaps that conspire to a fantasy of Expressionism, Cubism, Dada, Fauvism, Cobra, and Primitivism." He passed away in 1997. His friends, supporters and family established the bi-annual Alexander Rutsch Award and Exhibition competition for visual artists.