Biography
Janet Ruttenberg (b. 1931) is a painter and master printmaker who lives and works in New York City.
In her eight decade practice, she has dedicated the most recent twenty years to portraying Central Park and the people in it, a space she calls “the collective soul” of the city.
Her work celebrates the beauty of nature in direct juxtaposition to the surrounding city while also revealing how people position themselves, interact, and perform their own rituals in a shared common space. Working en plein air every day from April to November when Sheep Meadow is open to the public, Ruttenberg makes 10 x 15 foot watercolor drawings on-site with extra long paint brushes.
These drawings then inform her innovative large-scale oil paintings which she creates in her studio nearby the park. Her paintings include collage of photography and video components.
While Ruttenberg’s subjects - people and the park - are part of an art historical lineage, her approach is radically contemporary, fusing tradition and technology.
Exhibitions
Singing in Unison: Artists Need to Create On the Same Scale That Society Has the Capacity to Destroy
Curated by Phong H. Bui and Cal McKeever
Rail Curatorial Projects at Industry City, Brooklyn NY
September 23–December 17, 2022
Janet Ruttenberg: Beholder
ArtYard, Frenchtown NJ
September 14–December 29, 2019
Janet Ruttenberg: Figure in the Landscape / Kathy Ruttenberg: Landscape in the Figure
Dubuque Museum of Art
October 24, 2015–March 20, 2016
Janet Ruttenberg: Picturing Central Park
Museum of the City of New York
September 23, 2013–January 5, 2014
Janet Ruttenberg: Park Avenue Etchings
Union Carbide Building, 270 Park Avenue
April 8–28, 1977
Press
Exhibition at Industry City
Singing in Unison: Artists Need to Create On the Same Scale That Society Has the Capacity to Destroy
Curated by Phong H. Bui and Cal McKeever
September 23–December 17, 2022
Janet Ruttenberg Captures Central Park
Janet Ruttenberg, renowned plein air artist, paints the people and colors of Central Park on canvasses as expansive as the Park that inspires her.
By Charles Stuckey
May 01, 2020
Featured in Artnet's Editor's Picks
“Janet Ruttenberg: Beholder” at ArtYard
By Sarah Cascone
December 16, 2019
A Private Artist Goes Public
The New York Times
By Lisa W. Foderaro
Oct. 11, 2013
Contact
To reach the studio, please email us at [email protected].