JAI Featured Member/May 2024
Ruth Weisberg
Founder of JAI
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JAI Featured Member
Ruth Weisberg
Founder of JAI
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May 2024
JAI Featured Member
Ruth Weisberg
Founder of JAI
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May 2024
Artist Statement:
My long career as an artist and teacher has always been combined with a belief in devoting oneself to bettering the world. Over the years, I have spent much time and effort to improve the art world situation that was less welcoming to women. The reward was both a change in the art world but also wonderful friendships and the ability to make common cause. Together we have elevated the role of the artist in American culture.
Ruth Weisberg’s paintings, drawings and original prints reveal Weisberg’s decades-long reflections on personal history and the convergence of cultural experience and art history. Her work reveals the re-imagining of past masters such as William Blake, Titian, Veronese, Cagnacci, Watteau, Corot, and Giacometti.
One of Los Angeles’ most celebrated figurative artists – as painter, printmaker and educator, Ruth Weisberg has stood apart for her unique contribution and impact on generations of artists.
Recurring themes include diaspora and homecoming, phantom lovers, and rites of passage. Her depictions of grouped children, as in Together Again (1975), are as evocative of memories of her own childhood in Chicago as they are to projections of those children lost in the Holocaust. Her Jewish heritage informed by both, tradition and Weisberg’s feminism, has been a lifelong concern, and has resulted in a body of work unique in contemporary art, as evidenced in numerous museum exhibitions and published texts. She holds a special distinction of being commissioned to illustrate the Passover Haggadah by the Central Conference of American Rabbis.
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Ruth Weisberg’s paintings, drawings and original prints reveal Weisberg’s decades-long reflections on personal history and the convergence of cultural experience and art history. Her work reveals the re-imagining of past masters such as William Blake, Titian, Veronese, Cagnacci, Watteau, Corot, and Giacometti.
One of Los Angeles’ most celebrated figurative artists – as painter, printmaker and educator, Ruth Weisberg has stood apart for her unique contribution and impact on generations of artists.
Recurring themes include diaspora and homecoming, phantom lovers, and rites of passage. Her depictions of grouped children, as in Together Again (1975), are as evocative of memories of her own childhood in Chicago as they are to projections of those children lost in the Holocaust. Her Jewish heritage informed by both, tradition and Weisberg’s feminism, has been a lifelong concern, and has resulted in a body of work unique in contemporary art, as evidenced in numerous museum exhibitions and published texts. She holds a special distinction of being commissioned to illustrate the Passover Haggadah by the Central Conference of American Rabbis.
La Comedia e Finita, 1977
original lithograph, 29-1/4″ x 37-1/2″
Together Again, 1975
original lithograph, 15″ x 22″
Waterborne, 1973
original color lithograph, 30-1/4″ x 42-1/4″
La Comedia e Finita, 1977
original lithograph, 29-1/4″ x 37-1/2″
Together Again, 1975
original lithograph, 15″ x 22″
Waterborne, 1973
original color lithograph, 30-1/4″ x 42-1/4″
Return, 2014
mixed media painting on unstretched canvas
64-1/4″ x 50-3/4″
The Blessing, 2008
oil and mixed media painting on canvas, 80″ x 96″
Point of Departure, 2009
mixed media drawing on paper, 30″ x 22-5/8″
Return, 2014
mixed media painting on unstretched canvas
64-1/4″ x 50-3/4″
The Blessing, 2008
oil and mixed media painting on canvas, 80″ x 96″
Point of Departure, 2009
mixed media drawing on paper, 30″ x 22-5/8″
Weisberg has been a major voice in the advancement of contemporary women artists. Her solo exhibition, in tandem with Judy Chicago’s solo show, was historic as it inaugurated the Woman’s Building in Los Angeles soon after its opening in 1973. Her painting, Waterbourne and her original lithograph of 1973, that preceded the painting, is often cited as one of the most iconic images of the women’s movement. These works join both symbolic and literal reflections of light, and in this case, a personal passage of impending motherhood and the broader empowerment of women.
Ruth Weisberg’s decades-long teaching career as a professor at the University of Southern California is notable, as she also was the longest tenured Dean of its school of art and design. Weisberg was only the second woman to head the College Art Association.
The subject of over 80 solo and nearly 200 group exhibitions, Weisberg’s work is included in the permanent collections of over 60 museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., Whitney Museum of American Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Getty Research Institute, Norton Simon Museum of Art, Huntington Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, Biblioteque Nationale in Paris, and Rome Institute Nationale per la Grafica, among many others.
Ruth Weisberg has been represented by Jack Rutberg Fine Arts, Pasadena, CA since 1983.
Thank you!
About JAI
Jewish Artists Initiative (JAI) is a Southern California organization committed to supporting Jewish artists and arts professionals. JAI aspires to be an agent of transformative change by organizing provocative exhibitions and thoughtful programs promoting diverse dialogue about Jewish identity and experiences. Founded in 2004, JAI remains committed to fostering Jewish culture in our community and beyond.
MISSION AND HISTORY
JAI was conceived by the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles in 2004. It was originally in partnership with the University of Southern California Casden Institute and the USC Roski School of Art and Design. For many years we have been under the fiscal sponsorship of the Center for Jewish Culture and Creativity. Members include primarily artists, as well as curators and art historians based in Southern California. The artists go through a jurying process to be admitted as members.
We have collaborated with a great range of Southern California institutions including American Jewish University, Hebrew Union College, UCLA Hillel and USC Hillel as well as a variety of art galleries and public spaces. We have also worked and exhibited in institutions in other parts of the United States and Israel such as the Jewish Art Salon, Hebrew Union College, New York, the New York UJA and the Jerusalem Biennale.
JAI BOARD MEMBERS
Bill Aron, Isaac Brynjegard-Bialik, Anne Hromadka Greenwald, Gilah Yelin Hirsch, Sagi Refael, Doni Silver Simons, Hillel Smith, Ruth Weisberg, Cathy Weiss
How to Become a JAI Member: JAI welcomes applications for membership from artists and arts professionals. For how to apply and to view the selection criteria click on Join JAI in the navigation links at the top or bottom of any page. Questions: contact JAI at admin@jaisocal.org