Michael
Roberts is known for his highly realistic portrait cut-outs
on wood. His subjects have included well-known political or
historical figures as well as ordinary citizens. The cut-outs
appear three dimensional instead of flat, with facial
features augmented by intense lighting at close range.
More
recently, Roberts has concentrated on smaller, conventionally
framed paintings that are allegorical. Layering acrylics on
wood in an old-master style of painting, the surfaces are
altered through scratching and incising. Showing the influence
of medieval paintings on wood, these works might be mistaken
for darkened heirloom oil paintings. On second glance, one
sees laying on the ground, a depiction of a recent Time
Magazine's Man of the Year edition featuring
Newt Gingerich. The partial view of a car tire comes
close -- or is it over? -- the magazine. Roberts appears
in this painting, as he does in many of the others, this time
coming out of a cloud, clutching two figurines. Words in Latin
or other "dead languages," as Roberts puts it, are intentionally
used. Small elements are noticed in later viewings.
You, the viewer, are left to decipher the symbols, the mysteries.
Some seem more obvious, others enigmatic.
Like
his wife Connie, a fellow artist who works in wood, Roberts
has a loyal following of collectors. Due to the political
content of much of his work, his paintings and portraits have
found their way to the Washington D.C. area. A resident
of Iowa City, Iowa, Roberts is a native of California. He received his MFA from the University of Iowa in 1975 and
has participated in numerous exhibitions nationwide.
Details:
allegorical paintings: $1200 & up
