Bradley Rubenstein  - The Order of Angels

June - July  2010

For nearly two decades Bradley Rubenstein has been exploring the possibilities of depicting the human form through the medium of paint. Eschewing traditional modes of representation, Rubenstein instead combines contemporary methods of portraying the human form in both its physical and psychological states, with a craftsman-like approach to building a painting.

“The Order of Angels,” Rubenstein’s fifth solo exhibition in NYC, displays his continuing interest in expanding the parameters of representing the body’s endless possibilities. Psychological test drawings, the works of children, elements of animal and sea life are combined with carefully depicted portraits and figure studies, then deconstructed and rebuilt in compositions of handmade oils on panels. Painting on wooden panels is part of the continuum of the artist’s method for centuries.  Rubenstein pursues this tradition but with a very modern update that still preserves the rhythm and timelessness of the material.  “The Order of Angels” posits a way of “reading into” Rubenstein’s approach of depicting the “imaginary anatomy” as described by Freud.

Early illuminations and religious texts organized the hierarchy of the Angels; they describe an array of many-eyed, armed and winged beings – beings whose bodies were constructs based on their proximity to the Divine. Rubenstein’s paintings possess some of the internal logic of those early portrayals of cherubim, seraphim and the archangels – an attempt to organize and describe the mysterious and the Divine – the architecture of the human condition.

Bradley Rubenstein has been the recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Painting, The Pollock-Krasner Award and a grant from The Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation. His works are in the permanent collections of The Detroit Institute of Arts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, among others.

Bradley Rubenstein lives and works in Brooklyn, N.Y.