Painter Peter Ruta, ninety-four this year, has gained international recognition in the past decade, as museums in New York City, Germany, and Italy have celebrated some aspect of his career. This Westbeth exhibition surveys his entire range and development, from the early 50s through 2012.

Born in Germany, raised in Italy, Ruta reached New York as a refugee from Fascism in 1936. He began painting the next year at the Art Students’ League. After military service (U.S. infantry, wounded on Bataan, 1945) he returned to Italy for ten years, painting in Venice, Rome and on the Bay of Naples. In New York in the 60’s he flirted with the Pop manner, in a by now historic series of paintings based on news photos of politicians, protest marches and the events of Dallas, November 63.

All of this was useful preparation for his true vocation: painting the American landsdcape. From 1970, working outdoors from the motif, in Mexico, New Mexico, New England and New York, Ruta managed to combine the structural clarity of his early Italian work with a rugged, energetic lyricism, in paintings both powerful and serene. In 2000 and 2001 he painted Manhattan from the 9lst floor of the North Tower, World Trade Center. Beginning in 2000, he brought everything he had learned outdoors over a thirty year period back into his lower Manhattan studio, in an ongoing series of kinetic, baroque, still life paintings of fruit and veg heaped into tabletop volcanoes and slippery slopes.

A witness to nearly a century of art history, in the late 1930s, Ruta was monitor in the fresco class of Jean Charlot, who trained the Mexican muralists. Charlot sent Ruta to Mexico City in 1939, where he boarded with Siqueiros’ family and worked at the fabled Taller de Grafica Popular. In New York 1940 Ruta met the surrealists arriving from Paris. His friendship with Chilean painter Roberto Matta dated from that time. In Italy in 1947 Ruta drew close to Leo Stein, living his last summer in Settignano. In Venice, in 1949, Peggy Guggenheim sought Ruta’s help in locating a palazzo to purchase. (She finally took someone else’s advice.) In New York in the 60’s, Ruta edited ARTS magazine, publicizing new talents like Nauman and Kusama.

Ruta’s work is in the collections of the Uffizi Gallery, the Museum of the City of New York, the Leipzig Stadtgeschichtliches Museum (that displays this son of antiNazi and Jewish emigres with Leipzig painters of the late 20th century) and Villa Rufolo, Ravello, where his Italian work was shown in spring 2012.

Peter Ruta, a Selective Retrospective, will be on view from October 6, 2012 through October 21, 2012. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, October 6th from 6 to 8 PM.

Gallery hours are Thursday through Sunday from 1-6 PM or by appointment.
For additional information and/or visual materials please contact the painter’s studio at 212-675-5170 or email: suzanne.ruta@earthlink.net. See also Website peterruta.com and facebook page Peter Ruta artist

6TH ANNUAL WESTBETH MUSIC FESTIVAL
Friday September 21st – Brecht Forum 8 – 11 pm
Saturday, September 22 Courtyard performances from 12 noon – 6:20 pm
Sat. Late night Community Room 6:30 – 9:30 pm
Sat: Late, Late Night Martha Graham Dance Studio 10 – 11 pm
Sun: Sept. 23 Courtyard 12 noon – 6: 20 pm
Late Night Brecht Forum 6:30 – 11 pm

Musicians appearing include:

CLASSICAL: David del Tredici (Pulitzer Prize, Guggenheim, Woodrow Wilson fellow), pianist and composer of American art songs for voice and piano Richard Hundley, internationally acclaimed soprano Beth Griffith; soloist, chamber musician and vocal accompanist Jeffrey Middleton;

JAZZ: Nasheet Waits (Downbeat’s Best drummer 2010) with Rock, Blues and Flamenco guitarist Gabriel Abularach, composer/reed player Michael Moss with Zone, Bo Diddley’s band leader Jim O’Donnell, trumpeter John Eckert’s New York Jazz Nine, Steve Berger Quartet, Michael Holover’s Brass Quintet, The Eve Zanni Quintet, jazz bassist, composer, arranger, teacher John Menegon, pianist and composer Francesca Tanksley;

SINGER/SONGWRITER/CABARET: Valerie Ghent, Val Hawk and 3Spirit, Ken Wade Trio, Alexandra Leff, Hal Miller, Janet Parrish, vocalist, teacher, pianist, lyricist, composer Teri Roiger, Alec Stephen

RHYTHM & BLUES/BLUES: “New York’s Soul Man” Bobby Harden and his Soul Posse, gospel singer Arlene Gottfried, guitarist Dave Mann, guitarist Barry Temkin and The Raytones,

BEYOND CLASSIFICATION: Julian Maile with Mitra Sumara, Matt X Feldman, Madeline Yayodele Nelson, DJ/turntablist turned electronic music composer Isaac Basker aka Prez Ike.

Westbeth Music Festival: Sept 21, 22 and 23: Westbeth Courtyard, Community Room, Brecht Forum and Martha Graham Dance Studio.

55 Bethune St between West Street and Washington Street,
all events free to the public.

Continue reading →

While there are one person exhibits in our gallery throughout the year, there are only three group shows where you can get a sampling of work, in a variety of styles and media, by established and emerging artists. Summerlight VIII, is our only group show for this time of year.

For more information call the gallery 212-989-4650.

Click here for more info: Live Music at Westbeth

WestFest – site specific dance at Westbeth 2012 produced by Carol Nolte and Kirstin Kapustik comprised 14 innovative dance companies which were invited to choreograph dances for any space in Westbeth. Audiences wound their way through the building following tour guides to discover dance in unfolding space.

Friday May 4, 2012, the PEN/Westbeth Literary Safari was sold out, one of two events in the whole week of PEN activities.

L Magazine

…the single most hippest event ever conceived…

http://www.thelmagazine.com/TheMeasure/archives/2012/05/08/pen-world-voices-2012-stalking-the-exotic-author-at-the-westbeth-literary-safari

Matthew Aaron Goodman Blog

http://penlive.tumblr.com/post/22465298450/matthew-aaron-goodman-a-literary-safari-westbeth

PEN check in table in the Westbeth Gallery. Photo Christina Maile

Ken Golden, Westbeth Gallery director and PEN associate at Westbeth check in table. Photo Roger Braimon.

Crowded hallways as PEN/Westbeth Literary Safari audiences visited apartments where readings were taking place. Photo Roger Braimon.

Westbeth lobby where BOOKMAN sculpture by Barry Sigel, and PEN parade sculpture by PAW welcomed participants. Photo Christina Maile.

Author ETGER KERET at Joan Hall's apartment/studio. Photo Roger Braimon

Author ELIAS KHOURY in Maile-Mohassel apartment/studio. Photo Christina Maile