Concept
Ruth Nasca’s art cannot be easily categorized; it could be called figurative expressionism. She had a unique style of drawing and painting, applying color in a loose and free manner, often mixing the colors directly on the surface. Her work includes an extensive range of subject matter, such as relationships, sex, current events, general and art history, pop culture and travel. Viewers often describe her art as bold, edgy and provocative. When people asked her what a piece meant, rather than telling them, she would ask them what it means to them. She used a large variety of unusual materials, including Masonite, Plexiglas, vinyl, collage, piano hinges and movie posters.
There is no need to define her as an expressionist or a post-modernist or a feminist. It might be convenient to describe her as a feminist, since she was a working artist who was also a woman, a mother and a daughter, but her life and work defy such classification. Hers was a unique voice.
Almost all of Ruth’s art includes the human form. She was a figurative painter, and like Francis Bacon, she rarely completed a face; there are no exact faces in any of her paintings. The vague facial features allow us to focus on the figures, on the colors and on the nameless “everyman” or “everywoman” of her paintings. We also see that Ruth paid more attention to the flow of the painting and the intertwining figures than to the emotion on their faces. Often, the faces are subdued—we don’t know if the subject is lying content in the arms of their beloved or sleeping.
In her artist’s statement, she had written, “People are important to me. Since 1990, I have been creating poster paintings-drawing the nude model directly on movie posters with oil pastels. The process continues with acrylic paints, using expressive colors, strong shapes and bold drawing to transform the artwork into a new meaning. People viewing my ‘altered art’ may see sexual images that are original, sensitive compositions. I found the individuality of the face as important as the human form.”
In the mid to late 1960s, recurring images of babies and children appear in many of her works. In hindsight, we may say this theme was the result of her being a woman and a mother, because this imagery is noticeably absent from the art of her male peers.
Ruth was cognizant of not only modern and contemporary art but all of art history. Some of her titles clearly reference the important painters of the first half of the twentieth century. She borrowed from the Bleu Reiter group, the German Expressionists, and obviously the Abstract Expressionists, among others. She was also influenced by many of the modern masters—Goya, Picasso, Modigliani, Matisse and others. One can see how her color palette was influenced by the bold and lush colors of Matisse, along with his outlined figures contrasted with brighter backgrounds. One can also recognize a similarity to the way Philip Guston manipulated pastel with peachy and pink skin tones. In other paintings, we see the influence of her peers and mentors like Willem de Kooning, David Park, Larry Rivers and other important American modern painters. We also see her connection with Rauschenberg’s significant Combines.
In a contemporary way, she explored the rhythm and fluidity of the human form on Masonite or paper through the use of acrylic paint and oil pastel. What is most unique about her work are the paintings covered with “vinyl veils”. The painting is meant to be viewed with the painted-on translucent veil covering the painting on Masonite underneath. By lifting the veil, one can view the images underneath as almost a separate painting. The veil can represent the way one represents oneself to the world, and the painting underneath is then the hidden aspect or the subconscious.
In essence, Ruth’s paintings defy our expectations. While she had her share of difficulties, they were all incidental to making art. They were tangential to her mission at hand—just keep creating. She never sought to upend the establishment in either content or context but she did seek to make a unique contribution to how we view art, why we view art and how we make art that is meaningful. In Ruth Nasca’s art, there is always more than meets the eye.
