Rauschenberg Gallery features 'black' works of Syd Solomon

Syd Solomon Marcho. oil and acrylic on canvas, 1976 The Bob Rauschenberg Gallery, on the campus of Edison State College, hosts "Syd Solomon: On Black,'' March 13-April 9, with an opening and reception March 13 from 6-8 p.m. There will be a gallery talk at 7 p.m. with Mike Solomon.

Syd Solomon (1917- 2004) was born in Union Town, Pa., and studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. After serving in Europe during World War II, he attended L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In Sarasota, he studied at the Ringling School of Art and Design.

This exhibit is the first survey of paintings that focuses exclusively on Mr. Solomon's career long involvement with the color black. The exhibit includes 30 works selected from the estate's collection dating from 1945- 1989. Mr. Solomon's works are held in numerous permanent collections, including The Baltimore Museum of Art, Butler Institute of American Art, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Norton Gallery of Art, Tampa Museum, Tate Gallery in London, Tel Aviv Museum and the Whitney Museum of Art.

Syd Solomon Stratalure, oil and acrylic on canvas, 1980 Though the use of the color black has been an important element of Mr. Solomon's work since the beginning of his career, there has never been an exhibition devoted exclusively to his use of the color. The paintings in this exhibit represent some of his most complex works in which black plays a crucial role. For an artist whose formal interests had to do with layers of colors that are punctuated

by gesture, black served as the ultimate context from which all other light emerges.

Mr. Solomon's experimental use of water-based polymers, the precursors to acrylic paint, led him to develop a unique understanding of layering, which manifested itself in his invention of a resist technique using spray paints and masking paste on colored canvas grounds. His technique had a precedent in the watercolor tradition, in which oral atomizers are used to spray wet colors over existing dried colors saved in certain areas by wax. Mr. Solomon was able to make a much larger version of the resist effect using his technique on large canvases. Although Mr. Solomon used many colors for grounds to receive his spray applications, it is certainly black which absorbs all other colors so absolutely. Most of the paintings in this exhibition were started on black grounds.

For additional information, call 489- 9313 or go to www.bobRauschenberggallery. com