Barbara Rogers Art Home Page

Barbara Rogers: The Imperative of Beauty, the first book to document Tucson artist and eductor Barbara Rogers’ life and work in detail, is being designed and produced by Marquand Books, an award winning publishing house specializing in the design and production of fine art books; and distributed by Hudson Hills Press, the premier source for books on 20^th century art. The 224-page book, which includes 150 color plates and 25 black & white images, is scheduled to be released in April of 2012.

Thirty-percent of the profit from the sale of the book will be donated to the Barbara Rogers Graduate Fellowship in Painting at the University of Arizona School of Art to provide support and encouragement to the artists of the future.

We have extended the pre-sale discount. Order your copy of The Imperative of Beauty for only $50.

Orders will ship once the books arrive in mid to late April.

The Imperative of Beauty traces Rogers’s earliest influences and education, the shift in her practice following Hurricane Iwa, and her work since that time, which has grown increasingly complex and ambitious. Three essays examine the evolution of her work. Art historian, Paul Eli Ivey explores the work up until 1985; New York writer and critic, Carter Ratcliff, sees her work moving from turmoil to serenity; and museum director and curator, Marilyn A. Zeitlin considers her approaches to beauty and the tradition of ornament. Interviews in the artist’s own voice reveal the relationship between Rogers’s life experience and her art. The book not only documents the progress of an individual artist but also reflects the trajectory of women working in the arts in the latter part of the twentieth and the early part of the twenty-first centuries, and the challenge facing an artist working in the American West outside the world’s major art centers.

While much of contemporary art practice has avoided outright beauty, Barbara Rogers has unabashedly embraced and explored it. “I want to remain vulnerable to beauty,” she says. “I want to be stopped in my tracks by something I call beautiful that I have never noticed or seen before.”

The Imperative of Beauty Blog Update

Barbara recently returned from a trip to Seattle to work on color-proofing at the stuidos of Marquand Books. Visit her blog to read her insights on this process and to hear about her time in Seattle. Visit the blog to read more

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Stay up-to-date on the progress of Barbara's new book and upcoming Retrospective. Join the Mailing List.

Catalogue Raisonné: Search for Missing Work
A catalogue raisonné of Barbara's paintings is being developed; identifying the location of her work is of the utmost importance. If you have information about the location of one of her works, please contact her. The catalogue raisonné will reproduce all of her works except prints. Your cooperation in helping us to locate any of her works will be immensely helpful.

Video Clips
In 2005, Barbara Rogers was invited by Sharjah University to give Master Classes to the Art Centre students. The following three videos are a record of some of those classes, showing her use of stencils in painting and printmaking. Watch the videos.

The Imperative of Beauty Blog Update

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Stay tuned for more information on my upcoming major retrospective at the Tucson Museum of Art.