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Out of 800 artists from 80 countries, exhibiting more than
2,500 works, with a career far from over, New
Yorker Rosalyn A. Engelman received a
“Career Achievement in Art” Award at the 2009 Biennale
Internazionale Dell' Arte Contemporanea di Firenze.
The award-certificate is accompanied by a gold medal,
which bears the portrait of Lorenzo di Medici, Il Magnifico.
The Biennale is under the auspices of the Italian
government, with “High Patronage of the President of the
Italian Republic.”
The international exhibition is housed in the Renaissance
Fortezza di Basso, built in 1534 by Antonio da
Sangallo. Because the fortress reflects the splendor of
the Medici family governed, it is the ideal setting for this
prestigious event. Fortezza di Basso is the most important
exhibition centre in Florence.
This marks Mrs. Engelman’s second successive invitation to
the Biennale. She had three works on display: Fog, Emotion
and Bal Harbour Sunset. In 2005, Charlotta Kotik, Curator of
Contemporary Art at the Brooklyn Museum described Mrs.
Engelman as “the painter’s painter.” She adds that one has
to admire Engelman’s “expert handling of the basic
properties of paint, the juxtaposition of various hues, the
manipulation of the physical surface of painting and the
artist’s feeling for a composition balance.”
Mrs. Engelman received a Master’s Degree in Museum Studies
and Asian Art from the University of Rochester.
Continuing, she attended the Art Students League where she
painted along side other abstract painters.
Ed McCormack, “Gallery & Studio” magazine wrote about her
exhibition “Echo Sonata,” based upon the 17th
century painting/calligraphy of Hon’Ami Kõetsu
(1558-1637) that “standing before Engelman’s huge canvases,
one almost has the feeling of being present at that precise
moment in the history of civilization when form
morphed into sign and written language was born.”
The 2009 Biennale di Firenze is an extraordinary encounter
between different cultures, styles and languages as the
“Dialogue among Civilization” program promotes. Since 2001,
the Biennale has officially participated in the “Dialogue
among Civilization” program.
Mrs. Engelman’s other awards and honors include:
2007 National Arts Club, Best in Show, Members On-line
Exhibition “Barbados Memory” 2007 National Arts Club Visual
Arts Award for Painting, “Bal Harbour Sunset”
2000 Commission: Frontispieces for Substantive and
Procedural Aspects of International Criminal Law,
International Courts, Vol. I & II, Kluwer Law International
Publishers, The Hague, Netherlands 1998 Grumbacher Gold
Medallion, Artist members’ Exhibition of the National Arts
Club
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