Variations on a Theme: The Improvisational Art of Bob Neuwirth

 

 

By ERIK LA PRADE December 3, 2024

with contributions by S. Cranswick    

Bob Neuwirth is known as a musician who, for most of his professional life, preferred to work behind the scenes as a back-up guitarist, producer and/or singer/song writer.  Recently, on November 1, 2024, two and a half years after his death, his first solo record, self-titled “BOB NEUWIRTH,” was reissued, celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the record’s original debut.  Neuwirth’s musical life and career is undergoing another reassessment in the soon-to-be-released film, A COMPLETE UNKNOWN, a biopic of Bob Dylan’s early years in New York, in which Neuwirth appears as one of Dylan’s close associates.  Neuwirth’s long-time partner, Paula Batson, is also working on a documentary focusing on Bob’s lifetime achievements, which has a tentative release date in late 2025.

Another aspect of Neuwirth’s life is now in the process of being brought to the public’s attention, also through the efforts of Ms. Batson.  Neuwirth’s first love was always painting:  he painted steadily throughout his lifetime, experimenting with different artistic styles, using different media and producing a substantial body of work.  Yet, his musical career overshadowed his painting interests; hence, his work as a painter is hardly known outside of the circle of friends and/or the collectors who bought his pictures.  Now, however, his art archive is now being organized and made available for study, and hopefully his work will eventually be given the gallery retrospective it deserves.

Born in 1939, and raised in Akron, Ohio, Neuwirth discovered an affinity for painting at a young age;

“I was given paint and turpentine and brushes, a paint kit, when I was seven or eight years old.  My mom and my aunt were both painters.  So the idea of painting, the tactile sensation, the smell of the stuff, linseed oil—yeah. I was familiar with oil, too, but I was always impatient, because you can’t erase it, and you can’t paint over it until it dries.  It made me crazy.  I was impetuous —and happy when I discovered acrylic paint, which dries fast.” [i]

Initially, Neuwirth painted in a representational style, until, at age ten, he encountered Jackson Pollock’s work:

“Then I started looking at modern painting.  I think the real flip was when there was a Jackson Pollock story in Life Magazine ["Jackson Pollock : Is He the Greatest Living Painter in the United States?" Life Magazine, August 8, 1949],  and as soon as I saw those paintings, they resonated. They just clicked—and not because they looked messy or easy.  In fact, they looked impossible.” [ii]

For Neuwirth, painting, or being creative, was an activity without limitations:

“. . . another thing I related to with Pollock was when I read that he was using house paint, because I was already helping my grandfather to paint the house.   There was always some kind of painting going on around my house, even if it was painting the screens or doors or garage, and I related the painting of a door to the painting that I saw Pollock do.  I realized that paint could be a plastic entity of its own – that paint and the surface it touched were a thing unto themselves, a kind of holistic, talismanic/shamanistic kind of thing.  I remember painting two-by-fours as a kid and sticking them in the ground and looking at them.  Nailing weird parts of wood together and coloring them.  As far as I was concerned, that was making a painting.”[iii]

Neuwirth came of age during the post-WWII generation.  He was nineteen years old in 1958, when he began to study at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, in Boston, Mass., where he had won a partial scholarship.  It was here, by chance, that he entered the folk music scene as well:

“I hitch hiked to Boston to go to art school.    I knew two people who were going to school in Cambridge, MA . . . and one day I decided to visit them and see what Harvard looked like.   So, I went over there and I was walking down a street and I hear this banjo music coming from a little coffee shop, and I went in there and a guy was playing a five-string banjo; he was playing blue grass, which I was familiar with from the hills of Ohio.  I asked him what he was doing and he said he was “rehearsing.”  I said “For what?”  And he said, “Well, I play here at night.”  And I said, “You do?  They pay you to play hillbilly music?”  He said, “They call it folk music, here.”

In a 1989 interview, Neuwirth asserted that “Painting is how I got into folk music, in a way.  I sort of put myself through art school as a folk singer.  It was always my secondary art, and my part-time job.”[iv]

At the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Neuwirth was a year behind fellow student artist, Larry Poons, with whom he formed a friendship which lasted for life.  The Beat Generation of the 1950s and early 60s – epitomized by two of the most important literary works of the late 50s , On the Road, by Jack Kerouac, and Howl, by Allen Ginsberg – had an enormous influence on the life-style and social perspectives of this younger generation of artists, musicians, writers and filmmakers.   It is hard to know if Neuwirth read these two seminal works, but given the influence and popularity of the Beats, and Neuwirth’s dual interests in music and art during this period, he would no doubt have been aware of the Beat perspective and approach to living a creative life. 

Speaking about this period, Poons said, “There were no distinctions.  We were just all artists.  That’s the way it felt.  There was a lot of exchange of fun, which I guess in itself is comprised of a lot of ideas.  There was a lot going on, but primarily what I remember was a lot of fun. . .  The feeling was to make art; make great poetry; make great paintings; that was the excitement, that was the ambition, I would say.  It was very clear when you read [Gregory] Corso, when you read Ginsberg, and certainly Kerouac.  The ambition was very high.  To be great.” [v] Poons was describing a scene where people were able to riff on each other’s interests or ambitions to create works of art while having fun, without losing sight of their serious intent or talent. 

Pollock, folk music, the Beats: Neuwirth’s interests at this time provide clues into his developing sense of culture or counterculture.  

Neuwirth spent only two years studying painting at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, from 1958-60.  Brice Marden, then a student at Boston University School of Applied and Fine Arts, who graduated in 1961, remembers Neuwirth;

“BRICE MARDEN: Well, there was a guy named Bobby Newas, [sic] who was the big star student over at the Museum School and he was my age and we got along fairly well and he's always been like a very big influence on my life.

PAUL CUMMINGS: How was he influential, in what way?

BRICE MARDEN: Well, number one he was really great.  He had this loft and was just so facile in all these paintings, you know.  He could make these Abstract Expressionist paintings and I just couldn't make them.  Also, he was a big folk guy, you know, music.” [vi]

After attending art school in Boston for two years, Neuwirth spent a year in Europe, traveling and visiting museums.  He was especially interested in the works of Rembrandt, Picasso, Van Gogh, Monet, Pollock, Mondrian, and Kandinsky.[vii]  When Neuwirth returned from Europe, he left the Boston Museum School without graduating, and subsequently advanced his art education by painting on his own, while living in different creative environments.

Back in Boston, in the early 60s, Neuwirth painted in various styles, showing influences from his European travels, sometimes taking inspiration from historical stylistic movements or specific painters, such as Expressionism or Picasso.  In Boston, Neuwirth had a painting studio on the top floor of an old warehouse, probably above the Unicorn Coffeehouse at 825 Boyleston Street.[viii] Neuwirth’s styles at that time featured black and white stylized figures in a flat plane – stylistically reminiscent of Picasso’s monumental and hugely influential 1937 painting, GUERNICA – as well as figurative expressionist works.

Untitled, Ink and colored pencil on paper, 11" x 8.5" © The Estate of Bob Neuwirth

In a radio interview with John Broughton, Neuwirth remembered that “I met a guy named Sandy Bull [in Boston].  We became really good friends and he was from New York.  Sandy was well-plugged into the New York folk scene and we used to go to the Village and listen to everybody play there.” [ix]  

Greenwich Village in the fifties and sixties was a focal point for all the arts.  Neuwirth goes on to recall how vital the Village culture was to his development as a painter, as well as a folk singer:

“Greenwich Village was interesting to me because those were the days when the Cedar Tavern was still a vital place, you know, and painters were still running around The Village, I mean, you know, people were still, you know, painters were still drinking together in the Village and carrying on.  Franz Kline and the ghost of Jackson, you know, at that point... Larry Rivers and that whole crew of people.  And Jim Dine was working his way in the Pop, the edge of the Pop guys were just starting to show up.  Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns and all those people, they were just starting to establish a presence.  But it was kind of, at the same time, it was more like Paris in the 20s, or something, for writers.  It was really a potpourri in the hot cauldron of creativity going on in The Village....”[x]

T. Bone Burnett, a folk singer and friend of Neuwirth’s, made an important point about Neuwirth’s involvement in various art scenes: “When we met, (1970), Bob had a much deeper experience of the “happenings;” the Cambridge folk scene; the New York folk scene.”[xi]

The spontaneity generated in these scenes must have supported and encouraged Neuwirth’s unique approach to painting; it may have been a motivation for his constant experimenting with different art mediums and styles throughout his life.  While the idea of “fun” was one aspect of these scenes in which Neuwirth participated, they also expressed an anti-authoritarian attitude toward commercial success and becoming known for a “signature style” in the art “market.”

T. Bone Burnett told me that Neuwirth had strict principles when it came to his painting:

“For years, Bob was hardcore and very true to his belief system.  One of the beliefs we shared was that artists don’t have careers; careers are for lawyers, doctors and politicans.  But in art, it (the work) is either good or it’s not... I think Neuwirth and I shared that kind of aesthetic, but we never talked about painting at all.  We talked about art as a pursuit, as a way of life, I would say; being true and not surrendering to the sirens of celebrity or mass culture success.” [xii]

Today, this kind of artistic attitude sounds clichéd and unrealistic, but in Neuwirth’s time it was an inherent ideal of the art scene in which he was involved.

Neuwirth’s recollections about Greenwich Village revealed his excitement at visiting The Cedar Traven, the mythic drinking and socializing location for a number of the original Abstract Expressionist artists, like Jackson Pollock and Franz Kline, and second-generation Abstract Expressionists – Larry Rivers, Robert Rauschenberg, and Jasper Johns.

Neuwirth’s involvement in the art and folk music scenes in New York City resulted in his joining Bob Dylan’s band in Dylan’s 1965 Don’t Look Back European tour.  “He said I’ll give you a leather jacket and all the canvas you can paint on,” remembers Neuwirth of the deal with Dylan. [xiii] When he returned to New York in 1965, Neuwirth once again turned his attention to painting, moving into an artists’ decaying loft building at 76 Jefferson Street.  In a 2020 interview, Neuwirth told me that

“I hadn’t had an art studio for almost ten years when I got it.  It was a special place for me then.  My loft was hard scrabble.  I had the floor below Brice [Marden].  Eric Dolphy had lived there previously.  Brice had a stove so we’d sit up with our feet up on the stove door to keep our boots warm, and eat crackers with peanut butter.  I didn’t have any idea where I was going to get the next jar of peanut butter, but it was fun.” [xiv] 

 

Untitled, oil on canvas, undated, 50" x 52" © The Estate of Bob Neuwirth

Neuwirth’s Jefferson Street loft was cheap (eighty dollars a month rent) and provided him with plenty of space to paint and experiment in;

“I owned a 1955 Pontiac station wagon and parked it on the neighborhood streets under the bridge.  Slowly, over the period of a year, a lot of people slept in it.  I used it to drive around the city and pick up art supplies from construction sites.  I was very interested in doors and shutters.   I used to take them back to the loft, clean them up, sand them down and paint them in solid colors.  David Novros would sometimes spray paint them for me.   I didn’t have any place to store any of this stuff, no money to store it and no patrons that wanted it.  So, it all kind of got trashed over a period of time.” [xv]

Neuwirth moved out of his Jefferson Street loft in 1968, and left New York for California.

In the period between leaving his Jefferson Street studio in 1968, and participating in Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue tour in 1975, Neuwirth’s activities were once again centered around music, this time on the West Coast, where he recorded with David Geffen’s Asylum records.  Aviva Blaichman, a former manager of The Bitter End club in NYC, and a close friend of Neuwirth’s from 1968 onwards, remembers him being “mostly in L.A.,” living in an apartment in West Hollywood, “making art in his living room. . . even before the Rolling Thunder, or after. . .He played a lot of music with a lot of people, and I think music was a bigger focus for him during that time.” [xvi]

It is clear from notes and dates written on the backs of many of Neuwirth’s paintings, that he liked to travel, whether for business or pleasure, and that he continued to paint, mostly on paper, in small format, while traveling.

December 1977 is noteworthy in Neuwirth’s life as the beginning of his sobriety, and as a turning point in his artistic life, after which he made a more consistent effort to concentrate on painting, while still pursuing his musical career.  In 1982, Neuwirth secured a painting studio in California, where he settled and worked for the remainder of his life.  Around 2004, he rented an additional studio in Manhattan, in the meatpacking district, between 13^th and 14^th Streets, to use when he was in New York.  His friend Aviva Blaichman’s husband Charles owned the building, and Aviva remembers that Neuwirth loved the space because it had high ceilings and lots of space, allowing him to work large for the first time.  Aviva remembered that he set up large tables on which to work on pastels.  Here he also preferred to staple his large canvases directly to the walls rather than onto wooden stretchers.  Perhaps this habit evolved from his earlier years on the road, where, lacking an easel, he would just attach paper or canvas to a wall to work on.  (He was also known to carry a sketchbook along with him in his guitar case.) In the past, Neuwirth had sometimes “borrowed” studio space from his friends when traveling or visiting; Aviva recalls his use of her studio in Woodstock, NY, where he left a lot of work behind in storage, retrieving it later to take to CA.  She told me that “he felt the need to do the work, and was very fulfilled by it; he was working big and sober.”[xvii]

 

“Nitedive,” Acrylic on canvas, undated, 44” x 71”

II

Success or “fame,” can be a limitation for the artist, whereas the “unknown” artist’s life has a purity about it that gives him/her a certain freedom, since creating good work, exploring or experimenting with various styles, mediums, etc., is the primary goal of an artist’s creative life.  The expectation(s) that fame confers on an artist can be limiting, as he/she may feel pressured to maintain a “signature style,” which dealers will be able to market more readily. Neuwirth exhibited his work in a few group shows during the sixties and seventies, but his peripatetic life style makes it nearly impossible to determine how much work he produced or what styles predominated, as much of this work was lost or discarded during his moves.  Neuwirth’s reluctance to exhibit his art during much of his lifetime did not reflect a lack of motivation or ability to explore and create a large range and body of work.  Rather, it offers another example of his artistic belief that you can get more done behind the scenes.  Neuwirth generally preferred to stay in the background as he felt one could “do more by being anonymous rather than being famous; fame was a lot of work.” [xviii] 

Neuwirth’s oblique approach to fame did not shelter him from the recognition he achieved as a musician, but like many other well-known musicians, he appears to have pursued painting throughout his lifetime as a purely personal form of expression.  These two abiding interests were always present; Neuwirth told an interviewer that music and painting “provide relief from each other.  When I absolutely can’t look at what’s happening anymore, I pick up the guitar and amuse myself.”[xix] 

There is no particular artist’s biography, resumé, or exhibition catalogue that defines Neuwirth’s painting life, in which a viewer can conveniently read about his artistic development and the solo and group shows in which his work appeared.  Moreover, most of his works are undated, making them difficult to place in his life history. 

During the early years in New York, he participated in a few group shows, including at “the Park Place Gallery, curated by Paula Cooper, at the Bykert Gallery curated by Klaus Kertes; and in shows at the New Jersey State Museum and the Jewish Museum.”[xx]  Toward the end of his life, in the 2000’s, Neuwirth did have several solo exhibitions, perhaps having finally realized that his lifetime of artwork deserved to be shown.  In October 2008, the Seven-Eleven Gallery in NYC showed his work in an exhibition titled Bob Neuwirth: “New Work.” In Feb/March 2011, he had a show of his mixed-media collages at the College of the Canyons, in Santa Clarita, CA.  In the same year, in May/June, he showed 16 paintings in a mini-retrospective: Over and Unders: Paintings by Bob Neuwirth, 1964-2009, at the Track 16 Gallery in Santa Monica, CA.  His last show, consisting of eight pastel seascapes from the eighties, was titled Amagansett, and took place at the Diane Rosenstein Gallery, in Los Angeles, CA, Nov/Dec, 2022, just a few months after his death.  

At the time of his death in May, 2022, Neuwirth left a large and diverse body of artworks. Thanks to his partner, Paula Batson, and David Shull, the estate’s archivist, most of Neuwirth’s existing artworks have now been digitally catalogued and are accessible for study.  The works in the archive range from small sensitive realistic figure studies and landscapes in watercolor or ink, to large scale abstract acrylics on paper or canvas; “paintings” constructed of painted pieces of wood; even studies done on restaurant menus.  Neuwirth seems to have loved to try out new media – he worked in watercolor, ink, pastel, spray paint, graphite, markers, acrylics, oil, collage, wood, metal, and even glitter, often using several media to create a single work.  Throughout his life, he tried working in styles reminiscent of other painters he admired, including Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Larry Poons and Brice Marden, but it would be an error to think of him as a “copycat” painter, as he gradually evolved a stylistic vocabulary that was uniquely his own.  Interestingly there is no single style of painting or signature thematic slant that defines Neuwirth’s work as does Kenneth Noland’s color, Helen Frankenthaler’s stained canvases, or Frank Stella’s linear composition.  Instead, Neuwirth brought an improvisational, experimental quality to his paintings, as he did to his music, constantly trying new ways of using media, organizing his canvases, and developing personally significant motifs.  It is this improvisational quality which best defines his extremely diverse catalog of watercolor, oil, and acrylic paintings, collages, and painted wood constructions.

An appraisal of Neuwirth’s archive is initially overwhelming due to its sheer size and diversity.  At first, it is difficult to find the threads that run through and connect such a large number of disparate works, done in many styles, but a careful study rewards the viewer with gradually emerging patterns.  Although much of the work is abstract, undated, and untitled, one notices recurring motifs, and certain works, by an occasional date, or title, give hints to the artist’s whereabouts at their time of creation.  These recurring motifs, though recognizable, give little hint as to what they signified to the artist, but seem to indicate his lifelong attraction to, or obsession with, certain visual concepts.  Neuwirth also repeated basic compositions many times, each time varying the color scheme, or rearranging the essential components.  These repetitive paintings can be organized into a number of groups, characterized by the use of specific media, motifs, composition, and/or location. However, it is difficult to determine whether these distinct groups of related paintings were done in chronological sequence, or over a span of years, due to the lack of dates.  From some series of dated paintings, it might be guessed that he worked in sequential sets, i.e. trying out a composition in as many ways possible, until he had exhausted his interest in that particular “style” or visual concept.  The outstanding impression given by a survey of his works is that Neuwirth was fascinated by color and paint itself, and by the myriad of effects which he could achieve with it. 

It is helpful to look at his works on paper separately from his works on canvas, as there are many more of the former.  They were done throughout his lifetime; as he moved about on his musical jobs he seems to have always had art supplies on hand.  The works on paper were done using mainly watercolor, ink, or acrylic paint, or a combination of these.  Since these media dry quickly, they are the best choices for an artist on the move.  He also used markers, spray paint, and pastel - alone, or in combination with other media.  Mixed media and collaged pieces also appear sporadically.

Many of his works (about 25% of the total works on paper) were done in small or very small format: 9" x 12" down to 3.75" x 3.75".  These appear to have been quickly painted, as though Neuwirth were making visual notes about the places he visited, a sort of painted diary.

 

(Asconia, Schweiz), Watercolor on paper, 1990, 9" x 12"
 

Although some of these are painted in a realistic manner with a fine sensibility – showing Neuwirth had excellent technical proficiency with the watercolor medium,  a notoriously difficult one to master –  the greater proportion of these are done in an abstracted or visual shorthand, in which there is little to actually suggest the named location or subject. But Neuwirth’s dates or location notes on the backs of many of these indicate that Bob was documenting his surroundings, or his reaction to them, in many cases.

There are many larger works on paper as well.  These include loosely realistic landscapes and portraits, and a famous series of “Boots” paintings (hats off to his friend Jim Dine?), but the majority of these paintings are done in various abstract styles, though again, many suggest objective inspiration.

The dominant emerging styles in the New York art world in the Neuwirth’s formative period, were Abstract Expressionism as practiced by artists such as his friend Larry Poons, following in the footsteps of Jackson Pollock and his contemporaries. and the style known as Color-Field, as practiced by Helen Frankenthaler, Barnet Newman, Jules Olitski, and others.

Neuwirth’s larger works on paper (and later, on canvas) include many that show the influence of Pollock’s philosophy and methodology, or of the “color-field” school.  There are a great many that are “allover” paintings, produced by the layering of swirling lines of paint and/or geometric forms over multiple layers of color.  But, whereas Pollock maintained a fairly limited palette of nearly neutral tones over a constrained background of limited colors, and used a strongly rhythmic linear web overlay in a fairly narrow depth of field, Neuwirth’s “allover” paintings are made unique by exquisite color harmonies, compositions which exhibit a gentler rhythm of “action painting” while staying focused within the painting’s dimensions, a more fluid use of paint, and greater depth of field.  These paintings show a dazzling range of palettes, the ribbons and layers of color wind in and out of each other in a gentle and fascinating interplay.

 

Untitled, Acrylic on canvas, undated, 72" x 58 1/2"
 

Subtle coloration plays a starring role in Neuwirth’s paintings, ranging from the lightest pastel tones, to nearly neon, psychedelic colors, to deep jewel-like hues, to dark monochromes, all in the most sensually pleasing combinations.

There are numerous paintings with repeated motifs which are hard to name: a horizontal element with four dependent verticals, a vertical element crossed by horizontals, two uprights topped by a horizontal.  These appear so many times that they obviously had a particular significance to Neuwirth, but like most of the other repeated motifs, their meaning can only be guessed at.  His long-time partner, Paula Batson, told me in a recent conversation, of Bob’s interest in signs and symbols:

“He was interested in symbols.  He had books about symbols.  He had a book about hobo signs.  And he made paintings where he used hands.  He looked at aboriginal paintings with hands in them.  He was interested in the French cave paintings; Lascaux. . .  I think he liked the idea of having language that wasn’t words. . . When working on a song, he could really be obsessive about what word went where and fit.  So, it is interesting that in his paintings, he didn’t use words, he used symbols.” [xxi] 

 

Untitled (NYC), 2004-2005, Acrylic, oil stick, and graphite on canvas, 67" x 83"
 

Batson emphasized that Neuwirth was very facile with language, and made his living working as a songwriter, a wordsmith.  But she went on to say that in his artwork, Neuwirth sought to produce images devoid of linguistic references, preferring the purely symbolic messages which speak to the unconscious mind.  Through these, and his subtle manipulations of color, he sought to evoke certain emotions and express certain ideas about the world around him.  Many paintings seem to be depicting something specific, but inexpressible in words.

Neuwirth had an extraordinary ability to use paint in multiple ways, producing effects ranging from a watery, delicate quality to a bold and intense statement.  He used different media and painting methods in novel ways to achieve startling, psychologically evocative effects.

Two mediums Neuwirth used less often, but with his typical masterly skill, were pastel and collage.  The pastels often depict seascapes, in either a fairly realistic, but simplified, manner, or in a semi-abstract way.  Both these styles were represented in his last show of seascape pastels, “Amagansett.”  Although Neuwirth occasionally incorporated collaged elements into his paintings throughout his life, in his last decades he produced a series of small brilliantly colored and complex collages, incorporating such elements as glitter, tinfoil, and lottery tickets to achieve bright and powerful compositions.

Turning from the works on paper, whose variety is almost too numerous to describe, we enter his archive of works on canvas.  There are fewer of these, numbering about 400 in total, as Neuwirth needed a studio to work on canvas in the larger format he preferred, and during much of his early life he was traveling too much to maintain a studio.  Therefore,  the works on canvas were produced sporadically in the periods when he was able to secure a studio.  Most of these canvases are medium large, ranging from 3 feet by 3 feet, to 5 ft by 6 ft or thereabouts, considerably smaller than the work of many of his contemporaries, like Rauschenburg, Rothko, Still, etc, who were doing wall-size works.  One interesting series of works was done on one hundred 12" x12" pre-stretched canvases that he bought on sale.  It is interesting to note, however, that the impact of Neuwirth’s works is always larger than their scale; Neuwirth’s works have a large presence about them, without actually being physically large.

The earliest canvases, done while he was at the Museum school (1958-60) and while working from his Jefferson Studio (1965-68), show the influence of Picasso’s geometric figurative period and Expressionism.  There is little hint here of the master colorist Neuwirth would become.  Neuwirth developed his coloristic skills and his facility with different mediums mainly by working on paper, while traveling for his work as a musician.  In the 80s, he produced a number of canvases, 3' x 4' or somewhat larger, the greater portion of them done in a sort of allover “color-field” style, using acrylic and oils or “mixed media” on canvas covered panels.  The paintings seem lit from within.  There are also series of paintings which seem to have a “Cosmic” spatial theme; in one group, lines and splashes of light paint overlay a matrix of deeply luminescent colors, the overall effect recalling the Hubble telescope photos of deep space.  In another series Neuwirth let deeply-hued colors bleed across a dark ground, and then added splashes and drips of brilliant color on top.  Other paintings seem to feature mostly empty fields of color with small ovoid shapes and enigmatic motifs floating across them.  These motifs appear over and over on both paper and canvas – handprints, an airplane shape, turtles, fish, floating ovals; narrow and pointed ellipses, and diamond or rhomboid shapes.  Also in the 80s, he produced a series of acrylics on long vertical or horizontal panels, done in subdued monochromatic tones.  There are also many canvases from the 80s which are done in active, allover patterns utilizing a multitude of small intertwining brushstrokes which he had previously perfected on paper.  Starting in the later 2000’s, Neuwirth produced a substantial number of works in oil and/or acrylic on canvas, many of these following the styles he had developed on paper during earlier decades, and incorporating the same motifs which had always fascinated him. 

Untitled, Ink and watercolor on paper, 1998, 12” x 9”

 

To sum up, there are so many different styles in Neuwirth’s archive, that it is difficult to describe them all.  To say he was versatile is an understatement. The samples shown here hardly scratch the surface of his remarkable output.  He continually tried out new ways of using paint and new ways of applying it to his surfaces, while revisiting and reworking his motifs.  Words are truly inadequate to describe paintings that are an exploration and elaboration of the many ways color can be used to elicit emotional and spiritual responses.  Aesthetically, many of Neuwirth’s paintings share kinship with Monet’s waterlillies, Kandinsky’s quirky universe, Miro’s special vocabulary of shapes; while others recall Pollock’s action painting, or Hans Hoffman’s bold abstractions.  Above all, Neuwirth was a master of color and painting was always on his mind.  In the Gary Lippman interview, Lippman questioned Neuwirth about his methods:

Q: I know you’ve had periods when you stopped painting and songwriting.  Even though you weren’t active, were you still thinking about making art?

Neuwirth replied,  “Thinking or absorbing.  If you’re a painter, you’re always looking at colors.” 

Neuwirth’s experience as a musician, in which he used music to express his feelings, is mirrored in his approaches to painting. In his multiple treatments of recurring motifs and compositions, we can see a parallel with the variations on a theme employed by classical composers, such as Mozart, and Bach, and in the twentieth century by great jazz musicians, such as Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and others.  He created sensual melodies, harmonies, and rhythms with color; his endless variations on themes reminds one of great  musicians playfully moving around, inside, and beyond the basic tune.  No other painter among the Abstract Expressionists or Color-Field painters explored color more deeply than Neuwirth did.  Ultimately he evolved a private, symbolic visual idiom, which permeates his work and imbues it with mystery and gravitas. His work does not fit into any one of the dominant twentieth-century stylistic movements; in trying to name his style(s), one might use the term “Abstract Expressive Impressionism.” Above all, Neuwirth showed how a master painter can make his colors whisper, sigh, shout, and sing.  

To see a wide sampling of Neuwirth’s work, go to https://www.instagram.com/bobneuwirth