Installation detail with Francisco Zúñiga’s Coloquio
As most of our attention these days is dominated by digital screens and virtual experiences, Jack Rutberg has assembled something increasingly rare: a collection that compels physical presence.
His current exhibition, “SCULPTORS: From Degas to Ruscha,” spanning 120 years of sculptural history, offers visitors what he calls “intimate engagement” with works that have shaped modern and contemporary art.
The exhibition at Jack Rutberg Fine Arts in Pasadena presents 53 works—nearly all from Rutberg’s own gallery holdings—creating an unprecedented survey that few museums could match. “People are kind of awestruck,” Rutberg says of visitors’ reactions. “First, they had a hard time believing that these all came from our holdings.”
The Tactile Reality of Sculpture
What makes sculpture uniquely powerful in our increasingly virtual world? Rutberg draws a fundamental distinction between painting and sculpture that resonates particularly today. “When you look at a painting, it’s virtual in a sense. It’s suggestive of the forms that you see,” he explains. “Sculpture is actual, it’s a fully resolved, three-dimensional object.”
This physicality creates what Rutberg calls “evocative” experiences. Standing before Francisco Zúñiga’s six-foot bronze masterpiece—a work by “certainly the most consequential Latin American sculptor of the 20th century”—visitors encounter something that transcends mere representation. “It’s as tender as if these figures were of flesh and bone,” Rutberg observes. “But more than that of attitude, it’s not just an illustration of something, it’s evocative of something much bigger than those figures themselves.”
Unexpected Discoveries and Dialogues
The exhibition’s power lies not just in its individual works but in their conversations across time. Rutberg has placed pieces that are decades apart in dialogue, revealing how artists “stood on the shoulders of those that proceeded them.” A six-inch bronze sculpture by Pierre Bonnard—better known as a Post-Impressionist painter—sits near Zúñiga’s monumental work, creating an intimate dialogue between French Impressionism and Latin American modernism.
“Very, very few people have actually seen a sculpture by Bonnard,” Rutberg notes, highlighting the exhibition’s revelatory nature. The show includes rarely seen three-dimensional works by masters primarily known for other media, from Edgar Degas to Paul Gauguin, to Ed Ruscha.
Perhaps most surprising is the presence of one of only two bronze sculptures ever made by Ed Ruscha, the Los Angeles artist whom Rutberg calls “probably the single most recognized artist in America from Los Angeles and internationally collected.” The inclusion of such a rarity alongside historical masters demonstrates the exhibition’s scope.
A Space for Contemplation
Rutberg has deliberately created an environment that counters the often overwhelming scale of museum installations. The gallery space is “more equatable to what someone might experience in a home,” he explains. This intimate setting allows visitors to engage with sculpture as it was meant to be experienced—not as distant monuments but as objects meant for close contemplation.
“When it comes to sculpture, it can be very daunting. People think of statuary, they think about institutions, things on a very grand scale,” Rutberg observes. “But these are actually objects that are carved and executed, be they in different medium here by artists meant to be engaged intimately.”
Voices Long Overlooked
The exhibition doesn’t shy away from addressing historical exclusions. “Women have often been sorely excluded from the canon, from art history,” Rutberg acknowledges. The show includes works by Käthe Kollwitz, whom he calls “one of the greatest of the 20th century,” and Claire Falkenstein, “now an international phenomenon who hailed from Los Angeles” but “didn’t get as much recognition while she was here.”
Contemporary voices add social dimension to the historical narrative. Alison Saar’s work reflects on “the African American, the black diaspora,” while artists from the Beat generation like George Herms represent countercultural movements. This range, Rutberg explains, creates a show that spans “the territory here, both aesthetically and in scale.”
The Paradox of Accessibility
In a surprising revelation, Rutberg addresses the accessibility of museum-quality art. While the exhibition includes works ranging from $1,000 to nearly $1 million, he emphasizes that “much of the exhibition is priced at levels that are not just for institutions and major collectors.”
“A thousand dollars in this day and age, in terms of you talking about museum collected artists is not a great sum,” he argues, drawing parallels to other luxury purchases. “People buy a suit for that kind of money.” This accessibility challenges assumptions about art collecting being solely for the wealthy elite.
The gallery model, Rutberg suggests, offers something museums cannot: the possibility of taking these works home. “We are thrilled to find new homes for works of art, where people have the privilege of being enriched by these works in their homes,” he says.
A Cultural Lifeline
Perhaps most poignantly, Rutberg frames collecting as cultural stewardship. “The only reason I have these works of art in most cases is because someone or many someones cherished these before I did and saved them so that I’ve had the privilege of now enjoying them,” he reflects.
This chain of custody represents more than commerce—it’s what “sustains our cultural patrimony.” In an age of digital reproduction and virtual experiences, the physical preservation and sharing of these objects takes on heightened significance.
The Exhibition Experience
“SCULPTORS: From Degas to Ruscha” runs through September 11 at Jack Rutberg Fine Arts, with free admission Tuesday through Friday from 10 to 6, and Saturdays from 10 to 5. A half-hour video walkthrough, available on YouTube and the gallery’s website, provides additional context for the works. You can watch the video HERE.
For those seeking respite from screen-dominated culture, Rutberg’s collection offers something increasingly precious: the opportunity to stand before objects that have inspired for over a century, engaging with them as their creators intended—intimately, physically, and with full attention to their power to move us beyond the virtual into the real.
The exhibition represents what Rutberg calls “a virtual museum exhibition” in a private gallery setting, where the works are not just displayed but available to become part of new collections, continuing the chain of stewardship that has preserved these cultural treasures for future generations.
“SCULPTORS: From Degas to Ruscha” is on view at Jack Rutberg Fine Arts, 600 South Lake Avenue, #102, Pasadena, through September 11. Gallery hours: Tuesday-Friday 10-6, Saturday 10-5. Free admission and parking. More information at jackrutbergfinearts.com