This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Nov. 10, 2010 - Now at Gallery 210, "Rosalyn Schwartz: A Survey of Paintings" is a lovely review of works made between 1992 and 2010 that engage themes of beauty and illusion, art and decoration.
The child of an interior decorator, Schwartz was exposed early on to decorative objects and arrangements, and she now combines them on canvases that juxtapose clean modern lines with flowery arabesques of Rococo-style designs. Her painted strokes blur the specific forms, allowing their nuance and ethereal beauty to surface gently.
A series of mixed-media works on paper make clearer statements and delightful visual puns; also striking are the paintings in which Schwartz has copied sentimental pastoral scenes. She has a keen grasp of the intersections between kitsch and fine art, and the roles both play in decoration.
Her concentration on the sheer beauty of these forms also recalls the work of Mary Ann Strandell. ("Land of Temptation," a 1985 painting, was made years before the others on view here. It is billed in Gallery 210 literature as "a pivotal work," though its actual relationship to the main arc of Schwartz's career is hard to determine. If nothing else, it confirms the artist's thorough grasp of the vocabulary of kitsch.)
Ivy Cooper, a professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, is the Beacon art critic.