Remembering Rory…
A retrospective of the works of award winning artist Rory Wagner
Reception
Thursday, August 18th, 2011
5-7 pm
Grand Bohemian Gallery at
El Monte Sagrado Resort
317 Kit Carson Rd
Taos, NM 87571
Recognized as a Taos Icon and recipient of the 2006 New Mexico Governor’s Award, the late Rory Wagner will be honored for his contribution to the arts at a reception on Thursday, August 18th from 5-7 pm in the Grand Bohemian Gallery at the prestigious El Monte Sagrado Resort.
According to Rob Nightingale curator of the show, and owner of Wilder Nightingale Fine Art Gallery which has represented Wagner’s work for 20 years, the date chosen for the reception is significant because it is the Thursday before Santa Fe’s Annual Indian Market. Significant, as world renowned Navajo artist and fellow Taoseño, R.C. Gorman, traditionally had a show on this date. Rory was a protégé of R.C’s who he met in Taos in the 1970’s and became life-long friends with. In 1991 Gorman commissioned Wagner to paint “Aunt Mary” for his personal collection.
As committed to his art as his mentor, Rory was known to destroy a canvas if it did not satisfy his intense scrutiny and standards. Often labeled as an eccentric and a recluse, particularly in the last decade of his life when he suffered from poor health, he withdrew from the social scene he once enjoyed. “He just holed up in his studio and would paint.” (Nightingale)
Uncompromising in his work he produced between six and twelve canvases a year. Each canvas was said to “glow” with Rory’s passion and his unique style.
As a self-taught painter he was drawn to the works of the Dutch master of portraiture Vermeer whose style Rory captured but made his own: painting rich, realistically rendered figures. The countless hours he spent researching the smallest details, his meticulous attention to these details, the authenticity of the glint in the eyes, the tiniest detail in the clothing and beadwork, the care he took in building each image – each vital in its own place in order to produce the intense, historically correct images that hold our gaze, our almost disbelief that it is a painting and not a photograph.
This level of perfection is unquestionably why Rory’s works are in public, private and corporate collections all over the world.
Rory Wagner is missed by all who knew him and he has left a void in the art world but his art will continue to intrigue and to entertain today and for all time,” reflects Rob Nightingale.
Remembering Rory… A retrospective of the works of award winning artist Rory Wagner is open to the public August 1 – September 30th, 2011 and will feature the remaining seven of Rory Wagner’s final works complemented by fine art prints of some of his earlier works.
For more information contact:
Rob Nightingale
575-758-3255
info@wnightingale.com
www.wnightingale.com
Grand Bohemian Gallery at El Monte Sagrado Resort
575-737-9840
www.elmontesagrado.com.
