Visual Artist

Ralph Gilbert

ATLANTA, USA

I am a figurative painter, draughtsman and muralist, currently living in Atlanta. My mother, Felicia Altman, was born in Berlin in 1917 and, with her family, fled Germany in 1933. My father was born Irving Gelbfisz in New York City, the Lower East Side, in 1914. I grew up in a secular Jewish family in Los Angeles with my parents, grandparents and brothers. Following an unfocused year at university, I dropped out to study art, specifically drawing, on a non-matriculating basis at the Chouinard Art Institute (now the California Institute of the Arts) in Los Angeles and went on to receive the Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

For over 30 years, I had an active life as a professor (now emeritus), Department Chair and Area Dean for the Fine Arts at Georgia State University. I include that experience, even though it does not define me. I am defined more by a commitment to my studio, to growth as an artist and to values that are not widely shared in the art world.

Mary Odem, my wife, and two daughters, Isabelle and Leah (when the need arises), live in the former Lake Claire Baptist Church, thoroughly de-sanctified and converted into a home and studio.

What are you making right now?

I have just completed a mural for the State of Florida Court of Appeal, Second District, in St. Petersburg, FL. It is painted in oils on canvas, mounted overhead in the court’s rotunda. The theme is judicial, which would be challenging under any circumstances, but particularly so in a court of appeal. This is a court in which the main activities are reading and writing, since as an appeals court there are no trials, defendants, witnesses, juries or evidence; it is all about reviewing and assessing decisions from lower courts. The challenge was to create a sense of movement and drama, to incorporate the architecture of the new courthouse, to refer to the surrounding landscape, to bring color and life to an institutional space, and to honor the dignity of the court and its processes.

What medium do you work in and what drew you to it?

I don’t believe that I chose painting and drawing—that is, I don’t think I had a choice. I recognized early on that this was just what I had to do and everything else just fell away. I was drawn to producing work that was visible and tangible, that, while it might be written about or discussed, could not be fully explained. I grew up in a home filled with art, and that had a lot to do with it.

If you could spend an hour with anyone you admire, living or dead, who would it be and what would you ask them?

I would spend an hour with Thomas Eakins or Whistler, given that they both spoke English. I would ask questions about painting technique and conceptualization.

What do you need in your workspace to spark creativity?

I work thematically, and that helps me maintain momentum. I’ve done bodies of work focused on areas of interest, most recently poetry, for a series I call Free Verse: Poetry to Painting. I am creating works inspired by words, the words of poets. I believe that the desire of others to memorize a poem is related to my wish to make paintings related to poems. The energy inspired by public work comes from being entrusted as a painter and outsider to tell someone else’s story on a large scale, knowing that it will be valued, protected and permanent. Each of those projects has taken me into new worlds and presented painting problems that were unique and challenging.

What would you like people to understand about your work?

My personal work is subjective and thematic, variously focused on music performance, puppetry, poetry, early childhood dreams, Jewish music and more. As a public artist, I have completed projects for the Florida Court of Appeal in St. Petersburg, the LA Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the Lilly Library of Indiana University, Key West City Hall, the Hershey Medical Center of Pennsylvania State University, St. Paul Union Depot in Minnesota, the Piedmont Park Conservancy in Atlanta, the Helene Mills Senior Center of Fulton County; and a series of 23 paintings for the Milken Archive of Jewish Music in Santa Monica, California. I understand that public art must be visually rich and appealing, but I am committed as well to creating more than decoration—to making true works of art that will stand up over time.

Has your identity, culture, heritage, or community influenced your creative practice?

My identity led to my series of works on music in Judaism and through that to my commission from the Milken Archive of Jewish Music for 23 paintings that are featured on their website. More broadly, I believe that my heritage and family background account for my concern for serious content and depth of meaning. For me, creating something that is merely decorative has no appeal.

What does success look like to you as a creative?

I don’t think about whether or not I am successful. Rather, I am concerned with making paintings, drawings, and murals that are successful. By that I mean that the works must hold some emotional truth, while maintaining a strong connection to the outside world that makes them accessible to others.