“Life” — Sam Rein Solo Exhibition at Barrett Art Center by RAYMOND J
Inside: Raleigh on Film; Bethune on Theatre; Behrens on Music; Marvel’s ‘Art Byte’; th Critique: Sam Rein at Barrett Art Center; Year! Seckel on the Cultural Scene; Jeanne Heiberg & John Coyne ‘Speak Out’; Our 25 New Art Books; Short Fiction & Poetry; Extensive Calendar of Events…and more! ART TIMES Vol. 25 No. 6 Jan/Feb 2009 “Life” — Sam Rein Solo Exhibition at Barrett Art Center By RAYMOND J. STEINER IT’S ALWAYS A distinct pleasure sional surface alive not only to the for this viewer to come across a eye, but also to the spirit and soul. working artist from the “old school” A humanist with wit, perception, — you know, someone who can draw, and sensitivity, Sam Rein could not manipulate a paint-laden brush, have chosen a more fitting title for compose a motif, vary a ‘signature’, this solo exhibition* since “Life” so avoid a hackneyed formula that aptly reveals his long love affair with “sells”…in brief, bring a two-dimen- the pathos and bathos of the human River View Watercolor condition. This is an artist who not imagery (“Track Three”; “Table Talk only loves his craft, but who also is Al Fresco” — a charming genre piece in sympathy with the nature of be- of three oldsters conversing around ing — whether it be person, object, an outdoor table) is compelling, in- or landscape. viting the viewer to enter, to partici- Some thirty-seven works — pate in whatever is unfolding before charcoals, pastels, watercolors, the eye. Especially “present” in their gouaches, acrylics and even a pencil “thereness” — what the early Ger- drawing (“Reclining Nude, Head on man aestheticians referred to as the Hand”) — make up this show, more ding an sich (the thing in itself) — than enough to showcase Rein’s ver- are his studies of the female figure, satility in motif, genre, and in style.
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