Title: 4-17 Artist: Don Rogers Medium: China Ink and Acrylic Size: Height x Width x Depth: 36" x 24" x 1/2" Click on IMAGE for larger viewAbout the Artist: At about 15, I became passionately interested in science and painting. At Princeton, I devoted all the time I could spare from football, boxing, track, and girls to painting in the “Open Atelier” of Dr. William Seitz. In a way, all this time spent painting didn’t make much sense because I happened to be a chemistry major. In graduate school, they offered a major with a “split minor”. I chose to major in chemistry and split my minor between art and German literature. This was promptly turned down so I majored in chemistry and split my minor between physics and math, and continued to paint. I taught physical chemistry in Istanbul and Madrid, traveled, painted, sold paintings, had several individual shows, and had a lot of fun. At this time, I came under the only important influence in my painting life as apprentice to Aliye Berger-Boroni, Turkey’s leading painter. I lifted heavy things for her and went to the kiosk for vodka. Aliye said the only sensible thing I have ever heard anyone say about painting: “Rogers! See that line? There are a million lines I didn’t draw.” Returning to the U S, I found that all my earlier paintings had been thrown out. In retrospect, it was a pretty good idea. In America, I continued to paint but I also met some of the most repugnant personalities it has ever been my misfortune to know in the “art market”. This coincided with the opinion (expressed rather forcefully, perhaps even rudely) by the IRS that some of the money I had spent living well in Europe belonged to them. The IRS made my next choice was pretty easy: science or jail. In the ensuing years I published about a hundred scientific papers and eight books and paid off the IRS. I believed then as now that the action of making a painting is more important than the painting itself; most of my paintings from the early New York years were either sold, thrown away, given away, or stolen. I stopped painting for 25 years to play in a jazz band (an art form consistent with my philosophy that the evanescent moment is what matters in art, not its residua). Hence most of the paintings I am ready to show now are from the last four years’ work. My admiration of Chinese and Japanese sparsity of line is clear. Although at no time did I want to follow or, even worse, to imitate Piet Mondrian, the relationship of my main line of painting to his is also clear. Upon revisiting the Mondrian room at MOMA recently, I was shocked to find that my paintings are a good deal better than his. I find the work of Frank Stella (also a product of the Seitz “Open Atelier”) and Barnett Newman very congenial. My work is not better than theirs. Having earned my living as a scientist, I feel that I must defend myself from the charge of dilettantism in the art world (this despite the examples from music of Ives and Borodin who was also a chemist). I have never accepted the notion that there is a difference between the creative process in the arts and the creative process in the sciences. Those of us who try to see what others have not yet seen are all in the same business. Exhibitions: 2006 Individual Show, Jefferson Market Branch, NY Public Library 2006 Group Show, Greenwich Galleries, New York 2000 Group Show, Long Island University 1964-65 Individual Show, Long Island University 1964-65 Individual Show, Carmine St Branch NY public Library 1960-63 Individual Show,Robert Kolej, Istanbul, Turkey 1960-63 Apprenticeship with Alliye Berger-Boroni, Istanbul, Turkey 1953-4 Princeton, study with Dr. W. Seitz |