Lake Reflection

About Lake Reflection

The textured surface of water, still and dark, meets a strip of cream coloured sky in this long horizontal canvas. A cloud of green and pink on the far horizon balances the attention given to the small wooden shapes, like bright buttons, curated across the picture plane. The work is a master class in composition by an established Canadian painter.

Rogers' work, rooted in a cubist-constructivist tradition, was recognized by art critic Clement Greenberg in 1963 as having a "fullness of inspiration". In keeping with this sentiment, Rogers' tonal expression in this piece is contemplative, spiritual and uplifting.

Otto Rogers (1935-2019) was born in Saskatchewan and acquired his MA in Fine Arts from the University of Wisconsin. He later taught art at the University of Saskatchewan for 30 years. His work is included in more than 30 public collections across Canada, including the Art Gallery of Ontario, the McMichael Canadian Collection, and the National Gallery of Canada. Roger’s work is also in the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona and the National Gallery of Iceland, as well as numerous private and corporate collections.
Rogers also helped sustain the Emma Lake Workshops, which provide a meeting place for many of North America's most respected visual artists and critics, including Clement Greenberg, Barnett Newman, Jules Olitiski, Kenneth Noland, Jack Shadbolt, and Helen Frankenthaler. In 2007, a book of his work, Otto Donald Rogers, including a foreword by British sculptor Sir Anthony Caro, was published.