PETER RUTA’s Kennedy paintings on display in Westbeth Lobby Gallery.

Five paintings from 1964/65 by Peter Ruta.

The day Kennedy was shot painter Peter Ruta bought a piece of canvas and began what would become a series of fifty oil on canvas paintings based on headline news photos, where the cool detachment of Andy Warhol style Pop is tempered by the softness and humanity of Italian fresco painting.

Ruta, a landscape painter primarily, had studied fresco in Italy in the 50’s
Last shown in New York in 2003 at Banning Gallery, Ruta’s Kennedy paintings are at the Leipzig History Museum and in many private collections.

The five large works on view at Westbeth are being shown for the first time anywhere.

FUNERAL NOV 1963 28 x 60 inches

DALLAS Nov 22 37 x 42 inches 1964

MOTORCADE NOV. 22 26 x 42 inches 1964

MOTORCADE DALLAS 48 x 60 inches

KENNEDY IN PARIS 60 X 48 inches

Westbeth’s programming is made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State. Westbeth is supported in part by an American Rescue Plan Act grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support general operating expenses in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.