Samuel Rothbort

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 Fine Museum-Temple Emanu-El 2008-March-July San Francisco One Man Show of Memory Watercolors

External links

* [http://www.samrothbort.com Samuel Rothbort Official Website]
* [http://www.samuelrothbort.com Samuel Rothbort Museum of Art (Contains biographical information)]

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