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JEFFREY RUSSELL RYERSON, Contemporary Artist



I saw the painting across the room and was awe struck.  As I ventured closer, I thought perhaps it was by the famed artist Lester Johnson.  Johnson was noted as a figurative expressionist and a second generation of the New York School.  And like Johnson, Jeffrey Russell Ryerson in this painting, lent vigor and force to his human heads.  The painting is so crowded with stylized men in a frieze like arrangement that the figures expand to the edges and make the men appear to be compressed into a small space.  Unlike Johnson, Ryerson uses bright colors in this painting; pinks, reds, and white on a muted mauve blue background.  The painting consists of watercolor and thick gouache on paper.

The painting’s linear silhouettes of men come across in a turbulent fashion appearing in a confused mass.  The brush strokes used by Ryerson become a skein of lines that outline the interwoven faces.  Perhaps they are Jesus’ apostles gathered after the ascension or a crowded subway scene. We are not sure, but we do know that the colors are bright and yet the overall scene still has a brooding somber quality, which provides an interesting contrast.



36 X 24 Inches - Gouache and Watercolor on Paper

Signed:  Lower Right Corner - Ryerson

  
A visit to Ryerson’s website demonstrates that his current work has many of the same elements as when he had his Tampa studio in the 1990s.  He is still working in an expressionist style, and with his acrylic paintings, he’s layering his gestural brushstrokes.

Ryerson was born on May 29, 1953.  After graduating from high school, he went off to get his BFA at University of Tennessee.  There he studied under art professor Walter Stevens who served as coach and mentor.   He went on to get his MFA at the University of South Florida that were complemented with independent studies in Holland, Germany and Austria.  He taught art at the University of South Florida and at Hillsborough Community College.  He did not get tenure, which is not surprising, tenure is a highly political and many art professors get torn between creating/teaching and the wild world of higher education politics.  The lack of tenure sent him off to create galleries, which is what a true artist should do.

In the 90s, Ryerson had a large Tampa gallery and was represented by the Alamo Art Gallery, San Antonio.  He is a lifetime member of the American Watercolor Society and National Watercolor Society and exhibited extensively across the country as well as in Japan and Australia.      

The Tampa Bay Magazine in a 1995 edition stated the following:  "A prolific artist with international acclaim, Ryerson counts 4,000 completed works comprised of paintings, constructions and totems which have been displayed around the globe over the last 35 years. From Boston to Palm Springs' Desert Museum, Chicago to Tokyo by way of Australia, his art is everywhere. This accomplishment is no small feat, by rather a lifetime commitment to his craft. The sheer power of his colors, figures and symbols draw your eyes from one visual feast to the next."

Ryerson frequently now uses his artistic skills to raise money for philanthropic need, which provides him great pride.  His good works might get him into heaven, but it was his art that stopped me in my tracks.  My comparison between Lester Johnson, an artist listed, documented and illustrated in numerous coffee table books and Ryerson, points out the similarities of inventiveness and illustrative power through expressionism.  

I am not saying that all of Ryerson’s work can be compared to Johnson, clearly it is his linear expressionist paintings that match up.  To my art critic readers, I hope you can appreciate the analysis and the comparisons (do your own Google search to look at Lester Johnson’s work).   Finally, it is my wish that like Johnson, Ryerson will get several blockbusting retrospectives in his later years, the chance to be recognized for his broad artistic scope and be fully celebrated by the art museum establishment.     

Details:

Jeffrey Russell Ryerson - Artist

B.  May 29, 1953 - Currently living in Wildwood, FL

SELECT MAJOR EXHIBITIONS:
Cornell Fine Art Center, Winter Park, Florida
Saint Louis Museum of Art, Saint Louis, Missouri
East Carolina University, Fayetteville, North Carolina
Los Angeles Fine Arts Museum, Los Angeles, California
Detroit Museum of Art, Detroit, Michigan
Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs, California
Mixed Master Traveling Exhibition, Funded by the NEA
Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, Arizona
National Historical Museum, Frankfort, Kentucky
The Parthenon Museum, Nashville, Tennessee
Cheekwood Fine Arts Gallery, Nashville, Tennessee
Rockford International, Chicago, Illinois
Tampa Museum, Tampa, Florida
Japanese Watercolor Society, Tokyo, Japan
Michigan Watercolor Society, Sydney, Australia
New England Fine Arts Institute, Boston, Massachusetts
Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Georgia
Rosenquist Invitational, Hyde Park, Florida
PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS AND EDUCATION:
AWS - Lifetime Induction
NWS - Lifetime Induction
BFA - University of Tennessee
MFA - University of South Florida

PUBLICATIONS:
Tampa Bay Magazine, Nov-Dec 1995 p. 35






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