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ARTIST STATEMENT The work of Fritz Rauh uniquely combines the organic forms and palette of Art Nouveau and the kinetic effects of color as explored by the "optical" painters. The early work of Richard Anuszkiewicz is most applicable here. Rauh fills his surface with small amoeba-like single-color units, closely packed on a sometimes contrasting, sometimes harmonizing ground in such a way that foreground and background become interchangeable. Separating the two colors are narrow spaces, either bare canvas or a third color, which assume great importance in the overall composition by intensifying the color relationships, activating the negative and positive forms, and helping to bind masses of units into larger forms. The vigorously vacillating surface, heightened frequently by flat color areas defining the limits of the canvas, evokes, in jewel-like or somber tones, the beauty of the micro-organic world of the scientist. From Alfred Frankenstein of the San Francisco Chronicle, "Whatever their method, the effect of these works is magnificent. Rauh has mastered acrylic paint to produce an exceptionally rich spectrum. Some of his works abstract the presence of leaves and flowers shimmering wonderfully in warm garden light; others go deeper into the forest, still others invoke the sea. No literalism at any point, mind you, not even any impressionism: it all remains in the abstract framework but it admirably imitates nature as its method of working." ARTIST BIOGRAPHY Use your mouse to select any of the numbers, and the image will appear in the window on the left hand side of the screen. WORKS ON PAPER 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 WORKS ON CANVAS 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8