Rudolph Weisenborn [b. 1881: Strasbourg, Germany – d. 1974: Chicago, Illinois
oil on canvas
25 by 30 inches
Gift of West and Velma Weisenborn
Collection of the Illinois State Museum
Weisenborn’s muscular, colorful compositions borrowed from cubist and constructivist approaches and provided a visually articulate foundation for his early and vociferous championing of abstraction in Chicago. In Arroyo, we see his typically heavy impasto application of paint and what seems, at first, to be a confused grouping of color shapes. Upon studied reflection, however, elements of an aerial view of Southwestern landscape begin to be seen and the surface is riven with gashes turned inside out. Weisenborn’s credo, “The artist’s response to what he feels cannot be limited to naturalistic representation . . . the motivation is abstract, the result is abstract.” is confirmed in this painting from late in his career.
The detail image below shows some of the texture created when the paint was applied.
