Leonard Rosenfeld
Fabric Sin, 1979, oil, carpet tacks, partially stretched canvas, exposed stretcher, 63 x 48, 160.02 x 121.92 cm
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Rags  As a continuation of his venture into new media, in the 1980s, Rosenfeld stripped the stretchers bare and created his so called “Rag Paintings,” which were shown at Ivan Karp’s OK Harris Gallery on West Broadway in Soho. These works were created by wrapping strips of canvas, some painted, and tacked to the stretcher with carpet tacks. Rosenfeld referred to these as “mummified.” Sometimes other material would find their way into the work, such as in No Strings Attached. This series was exhibited at OK Harris, at the same time as Julian Schnabel’s broken plate paintings were introduced at Mary Boone gallery across the street. Rosenfeld’s work clearly fell within the New Wave (also sometimes called “Neo-Expressionist”) movement represented by these Schnabel works, and by the works of Basquiat and others of that period.

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