Jack Rabinowitz

“Jack Rabinowitz was one of the most brilliants artists... he understood poetic space as very few artists I have ever known – through history or otherwise. He was both an inspiting teacher and an inspired painter and sculptor... there are few artists who have grappled with the figure and yetunderstood abstract space... his work will go on to expand in recognition, because of his unique spirit, aesthetic courage and talent.”
— Mary Abbott

“Jack Rabinowotz was a painter and sculptor of great imagination and strength.”— Harold Rosenberg

"After and eternity of struggle and search, this beautiful soul made it... work that gives me a lift.”— Lil Picard

"Al Held and Jack Rabinowitz believe that the rigid logic of two-dimensional space aesthetics binds them to the canvas surface.
The canvas, for them, is and must be and end to itself.” — Corinne Robbins

“At a time when the man-made object so often abdicates to the machine-made one, Rabinowitz's work comes as an invigorating contrast. For these pieces are charged with an organic life that truly echoes and enhances any setting they inhabit.” — Miriam Brumer

“Jack seemed to be aware that even if all of us could not see what he was trying to do in his art, he knew that he was to be
reckoned with sooner or later.”— Ed Clark

“Jack Rabinowitz... making art with a drive and passion matched by few others of his time,
or, probably, any time.”— Gerrit Henry

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“Called Body Language, this series of paintings, drawings and sculpture were all made the year Jack Rabinowitz (1925-1974) died unexpectedly. Rabinowitz painted in a variety of styles over the years, exploring the terrain between figuration and abstraction like many of his Cedar Bar pals.
Some surfaces are gridded into small squares, and a linear configuration fills each box. An explicit reference to the contours of the human body
can be found in a black-and-white acrylic on canvas (72 by 96 inches). In each square, two or three precise, sinuous lines evoke either a torso, bent legs or shoulders. The painting reads as a writhing field of fragments of the human form. While the other works are more pictographic, this piece is sensual and erotic, unexpectedly bringing to mind the expressive body parts in paintings by Sue Williams or Cecily Brown.

Rabinowitz's sensitivity to color harmonies is evident in a large encaustic on canvas (72 by 84 1/2 inches). On a silt-colored ground, the hues of the linear marks are the same in each row. Subtly shifting reds--fuschia, cadmium and siena--alternate with rows of cool or warm blues. In many pieces, dark linear characters appear on neutral grounds. The dense curling marks often suggest ancient alphabets. A three-dimensional version of the artist's imagery exists in a 6-foot-tall Cor-Ten steel sculpture; a 16-unit grid of lines contains a vertical bar topped by a horizontal bar extending from either the top, bottom or side of each square. Evoking Plato's cave, a tabletlike shadow is cast onto the wall behind it.

Many of the paintings in this particularly strong series of Rabinowitz's oeuvre would be interesting to see among works of his contemporaries as well as of younger artists who use language as a theme.” — Cathy Lebowitz, Art in America

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In the 1970's, Johanna Bafaro gladly accepted responsibility as executor of the estate of painter-sculptor Jack Rabinowitz (1925 - 1974).
It is a beautiful body of work... with the recent success of the movie about Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner and
Rabinowitz's other Abstract Expressionist compatriots of New York City in the Fifties, Ms. Bafaro sees new opportunities
for Rabinowitz's work.” — Anne M Carley, Arts4All

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"Jack exerted a great influence in my life as a teacher, artist and friend. He knocked all of one's preconceptions of teaching out the window. If you were willing to follow, you would find yourself in unknown territory, where one could accomplish surprising results... He was generous in sharing everything he knew about painting and sculpture, from any period. He made art history come alive... what a unique indivdual he was – intense, opinionated, caring, obnoxious at times, talented, funny – more alive than anyone.” — Joan Gillan Negron