Ruth Grotenrath: A Woman Artist Painting Ahead of Her Time

On International Womens Day Celebrate Feminine Artists

Mar. 08, 2012

1:11 p.m.

Thursday, March 8 honors International Women's Day. In tribute to this day an exhibition at Elaine Erickson Gallery titled “Celebrating Ruth Grotenrath (1912-1980) : 6 Decades 1920's-1980's ” remembers this woman artist before women artists were remembered at all. The exhibit also celebrates owner, Elaine Erickson, who brings her love of art to Milwaukee through her gallery, which can be taken for granted in today\'s society. In the early 20th century, women were barred from showing in art galleries, much less owning one. Grotenrath had recently only received the right to vote in 1920, and even today in Saudi Arabia, women are banned from voting that might be lifted in 2015. To celebrate both women, Erickson then shows work from the 16 year old Grotenrath forward into the 1980\'s before she died. The 19 works in the exhibition include both paintings and works on paper that display not only a woman but also a Midwestern artist ahead of her time. Grotenrath exuded an exceptional gift together with an acute ability to understand the modern art world surrounding her while maintaining her own unique identity. Her domestic interiors spoke to a woman who painted from her very soul, the objects she lived with every day and loved. There's a painting of her yellow studio door, her cat Yuki, flowers, vases and wine, all beloved treasures from her Milwaukee home and family cottage in Holy Hill. These common but carefully observed objects she surrounded herself with continually re-appear in her paintings, including Yellow Door in My Studio  and Italy.  Her vibrant color palette was distilled from well-known art movements and painters, the Fauves, the Modernists, Gauguin and Van Gogh, illustrated by her Matisse-like interiors, flattened surfaces with distorted perspectives and skewed viewpoints. Grothenraths's compositional eye was exquisite, which highlighted her spontaneous brushstrokes. A viewer can see the Japanese influence from her trip to the Far East in her sophisticated compositions, sparse use of strokes to define an object and the Japanese paper she began to paint on. One notices these elements in Blue Fish With Plates hung on the center wall in the gallery. A cobalt blue, curved fish at the center top grounds the other designs surrounding it, the eye immediately attracted to the blue fish. This also frames the vase and flowers below. In Gortenrath's Still Life with Pears, primary colors literally pop off the paper where a flowers sprout from a vase that hovers above small blue pears on a table, neatly lined in rows and defined by fluid, sparse strokes. Pears proved to be a lucky fruit for Grotenrath because in 1954 she won a fabric design contest using the familiar pear. Another tiny image portrays Grotenrath's cat, Yuki, sitting on a red, round table surrounded by teacups and plates appropriately titled Yuki On Red Table, which may have been a scene from her family cottage located in Holy Hill. Painted with lavender, purple and golden hues the off center black and white fur becomes a focal point that begins moving the viewer through this charming tablescape. The painting appears to be a favorite for many visitors to the gallery, a tiny jewel to be admired in Grotenrath\'s career. In the artist's painting Asian Gowns, the Japanese influence changes the image to an abstract narrative. These two traditional gowns, black and green, are separated into geometric shapes of red, and then inhabited by two persons, perhaps a man and a woman that become distinct forms within the frame. Yet Grotenrath incorporates green in the man's black sleeve and black outlines in the woman's green gown with a masterful use of composition and color proportion while she plays with the patterns in these silk garments.<o:p /> Grotenrath lived in Milwaukee and the Holy Hill area her entire life, a life she shared with her husband artist Schomer Lichtner although she kept her own name until she died. To keep one's maiden name exemplified a courageous move in the  30\'s. While she won many awards and exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago, her home and cottage in Wisconsin timelessly inspired her prolific paintings. For the most part, ordinary women in the 20's-30s were denied access to show in galleries during that period when only men were permitted to do so. Although by the 1960's, 70's and into the 80's, Grotenrath sold out many of her solo exhibitions here in the city. Viewing these paintings one can surmise why. They speak to men and women about vivid interiors, alive with color similar to Matisse, which sparks a genuine love for the hearth and where one lives. A happy respite from the world outside, today more hectic than ever. Decorative objects that make an environment joyful and restful, delightful and welcoming, all at the same time. Grotenrath evoked these emotions in every painting with an uncompromising talent and prolific ability. This March 8 celebrating the dedicated woman artist on display at Elaine Erickson Gallery will be a distinct pleasure by all her view her work. One never tires of admiring images created by someone whose passion for simple objects that pleased her and her chosen profession as an artist can be so magnificently revealed on paper. Grotenrath revels in the ordinary joys of life itself, a true gift to cherish in the 21st century. <o:p /> <o:p> </o:p>Elaine Erickson Gallery presents "Celebrating Ruth Grotenrath: 6 Decades-1920'-1980's" through April 14, 2012. Visit the gallery at 207 East Buffalo or call 414. 221.0613. <o:p> </o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <o:p> </o:p>

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