Light at Dawn by Otto Rogers

About the Work

Passages of dense black outlined with a whisper of teal are topped with charcoal grey that ends at exact center of this canvas tondo by Otto Rogers. Above this horizon line, the sky is brushed with brown, dove grey and crowned with a shape of moss green that hangs like a still cloud. The geometry of the tondo, Italian for round, concentrates attention on the center of the image making the painting more self-referential. Rogers work, rooted in a cubist-constructivist tradition, was recognized by art critic Clement Greenberg in 1963 as having a "fullness of inspiration". Rogers taught at the University of Saskatchewan (1959-1988) after receiving his MA in Fine Art from the University of Wisconsin. His paintings, mixed media and sculptures are included in more than 30 public collections across Canada, including the Art Gallery of Ontario, the McMichael Canadian Collection, the National Gallery of Canada. His work is also in the Museu d'art contemporain de Barcelona and the National Gallery of Iceland as well as numerous private and corporate collections Rogers helped sustain the Emma Lake Workshops which provides 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, Helen Frankenthaler. In 2007, a published book of his work Otto Donald Rogers, included a foreword by British sculptor Sir Anthony Caro. "There are few artists, very few, whose work has about it a kind of magic; they sing their own song. Otto Rogers is one of these special few. I love what he does." ~ Sir Anthony Caro