Peter Blum is pleased to announce, Birth of Romanticism, a solo exhibition of mixed medium drawings by David Rabinowitch. A book published by Peter Blum, Annemarie Verna Edition Zürich and Richter Verlag Düsseldorf will be released on occasion of the exhibition. The 80 page book features a text by Erich Franz.

The Birth of Romanticism series, begun in 2008, marks a new direction for the artist. The origin of the series began in the 1970s with a series of lithographs exploring the fluidity of form using subtle variations of tone. Rabinowitch named these print series after figures from the late eighteenth century Romanticism movement. Like the period after which they are named, the drawings contain a vitality and emotional quality not usually present in Rabinowitch’s sculpture or drawings. However, the series continues his investigation of space and perception.

Rabinowitch builds up the works through layering of surfaces and mediums. Linen is collaged with paper of different thicknesses and textures over which pencil, ink, pastel and gouache are applied with varying intensities. The lines are completed with a rapidity that belies the deliberateness with which the linear forms are constructed.

David Rabinowitch, born in 1943 in Toronto Canada, has shown extensively in Europe, Canada and the United States including exhibitions at The Chinati Foundation, Marfa, Texas, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Kunstmuseum Winterthur, National Gallery Prague, Zacheta Gallery of Contemporary Art, Warsaw and the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris. A major retrospective of his work took place in 2003 at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal in Montréal, Quebec.