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Artist Statement
Leonard Rosenfeld was
born in Brooklyn, New York in 1926. After serving in WWII, he
studied painting, sculpture and drawing at the Art Students League
of New York. He found a place to work near the school and began
to paint. By the early 1950s, he was ensconced in the Cedar Bar,
the abstract expressionists’ hang-out in Greenwich Village. Clement
Greenberg, Willem DeKooning and Allen Ginsberg were in and out of “the
Cedar,” as were other abstract expressionists, art critics and
beatniks. This was when painters
“hung out” together and talked about painting. In 1957,
he did “Railroad Drawings.” Martha Jackson showed three
of these works in a group exhibition in 1965. In the early 1980s,
he exhibited his “rag paintings” in Soho, at the so-called “supermarket,” Ivan
Karp’s OK Harris gallery on West Broadway. Most of the 1980s
were devoted to his favorite work – “wire paintings.” Other
painting series followed (“Graffiti,” “Nuts and
Bolts,” “Angels”).
During
2004-2007, he painted soldiers at war, beginning with a portrait of
General David Petraeus. He had seen a New York Times book review of “In the
Company of Soldiers” by Rick Atkinson. It spoke of the General's
question to Atkinson, "Tell me how this ends?"
He was impressed by Petraeus’ question and decided to paint a portrait
of him. The picture shows Petraeus as a, then, two-star General and Commander
of the 101st Airborne Division in Iraq. To the right of the General's
shoulder are a gun and a wing. The General's question seemed thoughtful
and prescient. At that moment, Rosenfeld started to paint the war
in Iraq. No painter he knew or anyone else was painting the story
of this event. In 2007 he painted another portrait of the
General. This one is entitled, "Et Tu, Petraeus?" He
is currently using pastels: portraits, trains, stripes, stories.
March 2009