Once you understand the complexities of monotypes, you grasp that making them is about as easy as reading a book upside down. Free Nevertheless, Los Angeles artist Ruth Weisberg relishes the process. Indeed, says Weisberg, thinking backwards challenges her intellectually and intuitively. Weisberg, who serves as Dean of Fine Arts at the University of Southern California, adopted this genre in 1968 after viewing Edgar Degas' airy brothel monotypes and is considered one of the field's primary innovator. It explores Weisberg's figurative art in light of her expertise in the monotype's luminosity and transparency that evolve from her layering and meshing hues.
People fall in love, sink into sibling rivalry and make art.
By embracing and illuminating the past, Weisberg weaves visual dialogues with cultures, times and artists she admires. Perhaps because these images of preserved animals, sketched in the Vienna Natural History Museum, bear no relationship to philosophies inherent in Weisberg's other works, they succeed purely on the basis of form and light. On the other hand, Weisberg turns human images into static still life. Clearly, these folk are not average working stiffs. They're perpetually perfect, levitating in eternal limbo, awaiting that eye-popping bite of apple.