The Lives of Three Masters

Artist Rob Eder’s January Art Talk centered on three masters from three different time periods. Attendees had the opportunity to learn more about these famous artists and the work that made them famous.

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606 – 1669) was born in the Netherlands and his paintings offer a unique cultural and historical insight into the Dutch society of his time. His subjects were the working class, merchants, scholars, and members of the wealthy and powerful, all serving as a visual record of what shaped Dutch society during that period. Rembrandt painted between 40 and 50 self-portraits, also offering a diary of his life from his youth to old age, revealing the good and the bad things that happened to him.

Throughout his life, Rembrandt produced hundreds of paintings, etchings, and drawings, many of which stand out as true masterpieces, such as the Night Watch, a group portrait that is also an almost cinematic depiction, bringing all the subjects to life. He was a master in the use of light and shadow, revealing the character and emotion of his subjects.

Some 400 years ago, Rembrandt created hundreds of self-portraits (or selfies as we know them today). One of his iconic self-portraits was as a young man, wide-eyed and wearing a cap. He used his own image to experiment with various quirky facial expressions – a classic Rembrandt!

Jackson Pollock was born January 28, 1912, in Cody, Wyoming, and died August 11, 1956 (aged 44), in Springs, New York. Pollock led a very troubled and intense short life, struggling with alcoholism. In his time, he was hailed as the greatest painter alive. Not quite your traditional canvas/easel type artist, he would go on to become a member of New York’s avant-garde “abstract expressionist” movement, known for breaking away from realism in art. Pollock preferred large canvases and used a special technique to create his art. He would drip, splatter, and pour paint from above using brushes and sticks to create different effects, using his whole body to control the paint flow. He would layer colors and textures and was always experimenting. At first glance, it would look like a random, meaningless explosion of colors and lines, which got him the name from Time magazine – “Jack the Dripper.” To Pollock, this was new art for this new age!

Pollock got the last laugh, as his art from the “drip period” has sold for hundreds of millions of dollars. His drip painting is a unique method that has influenced the trajectory of modern art to the present.

The Blue Pole is one of Pollock's well-known drip painting masterpieces – dripped lines of light blue, red, green, and silver paint with eight blue pole-like lines drawn down the canvas at various angles. In 1973, it was acquired by the National Gallery of Australia for a record price for an American painting at $1.3 million. As of January 2023, this Pollock masterpiece was valued at a staggering $500 million.

Robert Rauschenberg was born in Port Arthur, Texas, on October 22, 1925, and died on May 12, 2008 (82 years old) at his home in Captiva, Florida. He was a pioneering American artist who reshaped 20th-century art. He believed that art should be found in the mundane; it should be engaging on multiple levels and provoking thoughts and emotions. Rauschenberg had a huge influence on the Pop Art movement and this year, Florida Southwestern State College in Fort Myers is celebrating “Rauschenberg at 100: As Large as the World Is” at its Bob Rauschenberg Gallery, through May 2, 2026.

Monogram (1955-1958) is a mixed-media artwork by Rauschenberg featuring a taxidermy angora goat with a rubber tire wrapped around its body, surrounded by various objects on a painted surface. This was a blend of sculpture and painting, incorporating everyday items and pushing traditional artistic boundaries.

Save the dates for these upcoming Rob Eder Art Talks:

• February 18th at 11:00 AM – “From Tradition to Modernism – insight into the Life and Works of Pablo Picasso.”
• March 18th at 11:00 AM – “From SoHo to the Streets; Art, Identity and Rebellion in 1980s New York City.”