JOSEPH ROITNER

painter

Born in Austria, studied Applied Arts for four years , Fine Arts for two years (Masterclass) in Graz, Austria and two years at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, Austria. Graduated with a Diploma (honours) and an M.A. in 1953.

Exhibitions in Austria and Canada mainly until 1970: Had eight "One Man SHows" in Toronto and approximately ten 'Group Shows': Northern Ontario, Art Gallery of London, Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, Outdoor Exhibitions. Also took part in yearly Group Shows with the Society of Canadian Artists in Toronto.

Minor One Man and Group exhibitions since 1996.

Credits: Three prizes at a North Ontario  Art Exhibition in 1954;  first prize for a Self-portrait  in 1957 at Vienna and first prize at an Open Juried Show of the Society of Canadian Artists in Toronto - 1967.  Four paintings and text were published in the book: “Many Faces-Many Places” (Painters of Ontario) in 1988.  One of the paintings: “Transition” was chosen for the cover of the book.

Paintings were purchased by the Art Gallery of Graz, the City Council of Vienna, the Board of Education, Vienna, and are to be found in private collections in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Canada and the USA.

Joseph Roitner  worked between 1959 - 1980 in factories, then until 1994 as a Scenic Artist for Films, Commercials, for CFTO - TV and in the Scenic Art Department of the CBC in Toronto.

In certain periods, I have attempted to deal with social issues in a universal way. But more often than not, I chose a creative, aesthetic or so called painterly approach which had detached itself from woes and injuries that plague humanity, images that were detached from reflections of society’s  shortcoming.

   Although I have made use of some of the known -ISM’s, as a majority of Artists have done, I have never strived to imitate any particular style. It has developed organically within my own experience. Very often the subject would determine the style.

My creative process seemed to react or alternate as a pendulum that goes from a closed (descriptive) - to an open (atmospheric) form; from bounded to the infinite; from the representational to the abstract; from the known to the unknown; from distinctness to the mysterious.

In all the different attempts of this interchanging process I continually returned to the vague, obscure, undefined images in the abstract that would allow a wide spectrum of interpretations. However, regardless of the degree of more or less nonobjective formulations, I have never abandoned composition or a spatial, painterly expression.

In  the end, I believe, any lasting appeal a work of art should have on the viewer, listeners, readers - would have to be the sense that in time the product will, if anything, rather grow and not bore us.

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