Richmond artist exhibits at SBC
By Jon Busdeker on Aug. 17, 2007
Simple images in black and white, the figures in Eleanor Rufty’s drawings look like they’re waiting. The modestly clad women appear pensive, perhaps bored; the men’s expressions are equally baffling. All seem to want to say something, however.
“The ‘narrative’ occurs within the mind, often with a complexity — and specificity — that belies the simplicity or elusiveness of the image,” the artist and Richmonder writes in her artist’s statement. “It is within this mysterious and unpredictable connection of image to viewer that my interest in narrative exists — not in storytelling per se.”
An exhibit of pastel and charcoal drawings by Rufty will be on display Aug. 18 through Oct. 14 in the Babcock Fine Arts Center Gallery at Sweet Briar College. Admission is free. A reception and gallery talk by the artist will be held 4 to 6 p.m. Oct. 5.
SBC studio art professor Laura Pharis said she has been waiting “ages” for a Rufty exhibit at Sweet Briar. She described the artist’s work as “very reflective” and said the “compositions are really amazing and the subject matter is very evocative, too, about personalities, relationships, families, couples.”
This fall, Rufty also will serve as the Sweet Briar Fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in Amherst County. As such, she will assist is some of the college’s drawing classes.
A 1958 graduate of Richmond Professional Institute — now Virginia Commonwealth University — Rufty has been on the faculty at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts’ Studio School since 1973.
Her work has appeared in dozens of solo and group shows in Virginia, North Carolina, New York City, Washington, D.C., Florida, Scotland, England, Wales and Peru.
Gallery hours are 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Monday and Friday and 1 to 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
For more information, contact Nancy McDearmon, SBC galleries registraral assistant, at 381-6547 or
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