Ruth Cobb retrospective exhibit this month at Brandeis Women's Studies Research Center

by Susie Davidson

Advocate Correspondent

WALTHAM - On Feb. 9 from 2-4 p.m., a reception will honor the work of longtime Newton resident Ruth Cobb, one of New England’s prominent watercolor artists. Remarks by Art Historian and Critic Francine Koslow Miller will accompany the exhibit, which is free and open to the public and will run through April 15 at the Brandeis University Women’s Studies Research Center’s Kniznick Gallery, in the Epstein Building at 515 South St.

Cobb, who was born in Boston in 1914, was a pioneering woman artist, one of the first to gain professional stature and financial success. Over fifty years after she began her craft, She paints from her home studio in Newton, in a large Victorian she moved to in 1958.

“There was room for each member of her artist family to have a personal studio space,” said Miller. “In her own second floor studio, bowered in trees, Cobb kept in contact with the endless varieties of nature outside her window. Inside, she produced such masterworks as the watercolor and ink White Lilacs, 1959, an elegant arrangement of white blossoms, calligraphic brown stems, and varying intensities of green leaves in a shallow white and blue container against a patterned wallpaper.”

Cobb is also renowned for her acrylic work. “Although best known for her watercolors, Cobb has also produced a significant body of works in acrylic that continue to probe issues of translucence and space,” Miller continued.

“Known for her sublime depiction of light radiating in everyday still-lifes and room interiors, Cobb’s richly colored acrylic and watercolor paintings have a rare and joyous beauty,” said Ana Davis, WSRC Assistant Director for the Arts & Marketing, who assisted Amy Kaufman Selame in curating the show.

The 1940s post-war art scene of Provincetown, Cape Cod, included the artists Rothko, Gottlieb, Motherwell, and Hoffman, and in Boston, Jack Levine, Hyman Bloom, Leonard Baskin, Carl Zerbe and Cobb’s husband, Lawrence Kupferman.

Cape Cod landscapes inspired Cobb’s foray into the new abstract expressionist movement. “The subjects that interest me are the textures and patterns of nature, the endless variations of growing things and ordinary familiar objects in sunlight and shade,” said Cobb. Family heirlooms and found and natural objects frequent her Newton porch scenes.

“My primary interest is a quality of transparency and luminescence,” explained Cobb. “I aim for an interplay between different depths, between cool and warm, between soft and hard.” The recipient of awards from American Watercolor Society, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and Allied Artists of America. Her work has been shown at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, DeCordova Museum, Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, Addison Gallery, Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

“Cobb's work has been informed by the directness and delicacy of Japanese and Chinese painting, and her works display a knowledgeable pursuit of both Eastern and Western Art, said Miller, who compares Cobb's paintings to the "intimiste" works of late 19th century painters Edouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard.

She explained that the term 'intimiste' is characterized by “a middle-class life characterized by intimate, cozy domesticity, reflected in Cobb's delicate and subtle interiors."

“Of late, Cobb’s works are becoming more minimal and she is allowing the paint to flow more freely,” said Miller. Cobb created a recent series which was based on a simple hydrangea in a transparent vase, incorporating a vaporous floating ground scene evoking Rothko. “Clearly, Cobb is letting the painting take on more of a life of its own,” Miller added.

The Opening Reception for the Ruth Cobb retrospective exhibit is this Sunday, February 9, 2-4 p.m. in The Epstein Building, 515 South Street, in Waltham. Commuter rail stop at Brandeis/Roberts Station. Exhibit hours are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, 9-5 p.m. Thursday, 9-7 p.m. Free of Charge. For more information, please call 781-736-8102 or email anad@brandeis.edu.