A look at the work of Isabel Rosen
It is tempting to interpret Isabel Rosen's work, particularly that from her recent blue period, exclusively as abstract art, but this would be wrong. In fact it would be rude. Certainly a painting like Important Items in the Sky, 2007, (right) shares a surface similarity with Miró's later abstract works. But while Miró drew on memory, fantasy, and the irrational to create works of art that are visual analogues of surrealist poetry, Rosen adapts from the world around her, using ready made materials from her every day life. In the work we see a My Little Pony, and realize immediately that Rosen shares Plato's understanding of the ideal society. In this sense Rosen has more in common with Picasso than with Miró, but it must be emphasized that neither Picasso nor Miró possessed Rosen's sparkling pallet, or had a range of stickers anywhere near what we see here.
The forms of Rosen's paintings are organized against flat neutral backgrounds and are painted in a limited range of bright colors, especially blue, red, yellow, green, and black. Amorphous amoebic shapes alternate with sharply drawn lines, spots, and curlicues, all positioned on the background with seeming nonchalance. We see the things she cares for, and really this is what her work is about: love. Love, and, it seems, ponies. Little Ponies. Her Little Ponies.
There are also ecological tones to the work. We see a sky devoid of plane emissions — clearly a statement on global warming. Yet all is not doom and gloom. These dreamlike visions often have a whimsical or humorous quality: the sun wearing glasses; people are levitating to the cinema; those pretty, otherworldly ponies everywhere. These elements relax the spectator and allow a form of energized meditation.
Interlaced in an all-over configuration, with multiple focal points, the painting generates even more energy; a continuum so charged that it seems to expand beyond the picture limits, evoking an immediate sensation of boundlessness, an endless space that is The Universe.
Rosen's success as an artist lies in her ability to evoke the big questions. Where are we situated in the Universe? How many ponies can one picture have? What makes it necessary for mom and dad to each carry their own cinema tickets? It is these questions which only art can answer, and for which we have Isabel Rosen to thank for asking.
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