Art Rosenbaum: A Resonant Legacy in Paint and Sound
Art Rosenbaum (1938–2022) was a visionary American painter, muralist, musician, folklorist, and educator whose life and practice wove together the visual arts with the oral traditions and vernacular cultures of the American South. For decades, he served as a beloved professor at the University of Georgia’s Lamar Dodd School of Art, mentoring generations of artists while also traveling the backroads of Georgia, the Carolinas, and Appalachia to document fading musical traditions. A Grammy Award-winning field recordist and tireless chronicler of American folk culture, Rosenbaum was equally prolific in the studio, where his canvases thrummed with energy, storytelling, and community memory. Since his passing in 2022, a renewed wave of critical interest and institutional engagement has emerged, revealing the deep and enduring relevance of his multifaceted legacy.
Rosenbaum’s paintings reflect a distinctly American visual voice, rich in allegory, layered imagery, and dense narrative fields. In works such as It’s Not What You Think It Is (2005), the viewer is immersed in a panoramic moment where scenes from everyday life co-exist with mythic, dreamlike tableaus. His compositions often feature figures engaged in musical performance, spiritual ritual, or intimate conversation. These scenes are not composed in a traditional linear perspective but unfold in a sweeping, rhythmic language that mirrors the improvisational structure of folk music itself. His brushwork is expressive, his palette vibrant, and his symbolism deeply personal, often blending memory, folklore, and political consciousness into a single frame.
The experience of viewing a Rosenbaum painting is not passive. The eye moves, searches, and participates in the storytelling. As art critic Philip Morsberger observed, there is no dead space in his canvases; every inch is active, every object and figure a portal into some narrative or emotional undercurrent. For many contemporary scholars and curators, this has become a central point of inquiry. Rosenbaum is increasingly viewed not only as a Southern painter of note, but as a chronicler of the social and cultural landscapes that animated his world. His art, like his field recordings, is a form of cultural preservation—vital, democratic, and grounded in place.
Since his death, institutions across the country have responded with renewed interest in presenting Rosenbaum’s work to broader audiences. One of the most significant efforts came with the 2022–2023 exhibition Three Excellences of Culture: Painting, Poetry, and Music, the Work of Art Rosenbaum and Friends at the Pearl Fincher Museum of Fine Arts in Texas. Organized in collaboration with the Linda Matney Gallery, this retrospective paired Rosenbaum’s paintings with those of contemporaries such as Howard Finster and Margo Newmark Rosenbaum, while also integrating selections from his vast collection of field recordings. The exhibition offered a holistic view of Rosenbaum’s contributions, framing him not simply as a painter or folklorist, but as an interdisciplinary storyteller who brought music, image, and language into conversation.
This integrative curatorial approach has continued in Athens, Georgia, where Rosenbaum lived and worked for many years. The Lyndon House Arts Center is planning an upcoming exhibition titled Unbroken Circle: The Musical Threads of Art Rosenbaum, scheduled for spring 2025. Curated by artist and educator Joe Peragine, the exhibition draws its name from Rosenbaum’s own rendition of the traditional gospel song “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” and is conceived as a visual meditation on the enduring threads of memory, mentorship, and music that shaped his practice. Local galleries such as OX Fine Art have also stepped in, organizing posthumous shows that celebrate Rosenbaum’s impact on the Athens community, while ensuring that his paintings continue to circulate among collectors, artists, and students.
In the art market, Rosenbaum’s work has historically flown under the radar of national collectors, remaining a cherished but somewhat localized phenomenon. However, with institutions now taking a deeper interest in his oeuvre and curators framing his work as a vital bridge between narrative painting and cultural documentation, collector interest is poised for growth. His paintings, which combine expressive immediacy with historical resonance, speak to broader market trends favoring authentic storytelling, interdisciplinary practice, and artists with a strong sense of place.
To date, the secondary market for Rosenbaum remains relatively quiet, with few major auction records and limited gallery representation outside the Southeast. Yet this low visibility may represent an opportunity. With original paintings still in private hands and new exhibitions drawing attention to their historical and aesthetic value, collectors have a rare chance to engage with a body of work that is both underappreciated and highly significant. For those seeking art that carries cultural weight, regional specificity, and multigenerational relevance, Rosenbaum’s work offers a compelling proposition.
More than just a painter of people and places, Rosenbaum exemplified a holistic vision of artistic responsibility. He was an archivist of the intangible, a steward of stories, and a teacher who believed in the power of art to connect, preserve, and uplift. As American museums and collectors increasingly seek to support artists whose practices bridge disciplines and engage communities, Rosenbaum stands out not only for the quality of his work but for the integrity of his mission. His legacy continues to grow, shaped not just by memory, but by renewed curiosity, evolving conversations, and a shared desire to keep the circle unbroken.
Art Rosenbaum — Artist Talk
A recorded conversation offering insight into Rosenbaum’s thinking around painting, process, and observation.
Endnotes
University of Georgia press release, tribute to Art Rosenbaum’s career and legacy, 2022
Morsberger, Philip. Commentary on Rosenbaum’s visual style in The Athens Banner-Herald, 2005
Exhibition catalog, Three Excellences of Culture: Painting, Poetry, and Music, Pearl Fincher Museum, 2022
Lyndon House Arts Center press release, Unbroken Circle, 2024
Interview with Joe Peragine, curator, published in Flagpole Magazine, Athens, GA, 2024
OX Fine Art show announcement, Athens, GA, September 2024
Artsy sales database for Art Rosenbaum, 2023
Auction results and gallery records
EXHIBITIONS AT MATNEY GALLERY
ART HOUSE ON CITY SQUARE AND TEMPORAL DISTORTIONS: ARTISTS WORKING IN THE CONTEMPORARY SOUTH VIEW EXHIbition
CURATED BY JOHN LEE MATNEY AND TYRUS LYTTON
Three Excellences of Culture: Painting, Poetry and Music, the Work of Art Rosenbaum and Friends, 2022
Pearl Fincher Museum of Fine Arts, Spring Texas. VIEW EXHIBITION
Art Rosenbaum painted images of Southern folklore in richly colored canvases that depict lively figures often dancing or holding musical instruments. After moving to Georgia, Art and Margo met musicians such as Ring Shouters on the Georgia coast, banjo and fiddle players in the mountains, faith-filled singers in African American churches, and old-school blues players. These musicians made their way into Art’s paintings as well as Margo’s photographs. “
A typical Rosenbaum canvas is fairly teeming with figures, many of them specific portraits, often including the artist himself,” writes painter Philip Morsberger. “Elements of landscape, of architecture, of still life (often musical instruments): all are presented in rich detail, but at the same time with bold and fearless brushwork. There is no dead space in a Rosenbaum painting. Something is going on everywhere one looks.”
Rosenbaum’s paintings are in many collections, including the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Georgia Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian National Museum of American Art. He also plays a variety of folk instruments, and his music will be part of the exhibition at the Pearl. Rosenbaum’s boxed set, Art of Field Recording Vol. 1: Fifty Years of American Traditional Music Documented by Art Rosenbaum won a Grammy for Best Documentary Recording in 2008.
Margo Newmark Rosenbaum has collaborated with Art over many years in documenting American traditional music. Her photographs have been published in several books by Art Rosenbaum as well as the New York Times, Newsweek, and The Old-Time Herald. Margo’s work has been widely exhibited and is part of many private collections.
Three Excellences of Culture will be featured in both the Main Gallery and the Cole Gallery at the Pearl Fincher Museum of Fine Arts this fall. Among the other artists whose work will be included are Howard Finster, who designed album covers for R.E.M. and the B-52’s; Len Jenkin, whose work includes scripts for Family, The Incredible Hulk, and the novel New Jerusalem; Michael Paxton, Bonnie Loggins, Dennis Harper, Kent Knowles, Scott Belville, Dilmus Hall. Zuzka Vaclavik, and Teddy Johnson.
The exhibition opens to the public on Saturday, September 24 with a members-only preview on Friday evening. Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and admission is free. Please note that the Pearl will be closed September 4 – 23 for the exhibition change.
