“I am interested in emulating the art of other epochs with which I feel affinity, and without apology,” says Ruth Weisberg. Weisberg’s appreciation for the history of art is a particularly intimate one, as seen through the lens of her own experience as a painter-printmaker. Implicit in Weisberg’s work is the assertion that contemporary art is not separable from the art of earlier periods. She says: “Art history becomes part of the imaginative life of the artist; we are in what I call a ‘dialogue’ with the past.”

Weisberg’s dialogue with Cagnacci’s masterpiece began in 2007. Contemplating this painting, Weisberg created a series of more than 20 paintings, monumental-size drawings and monotypes. Cagnacci’s ambitious pictorial narrative weaves together a number of emotive themes, including repentance, anger and the triumph of virtue over vice—all of which were topical subjects during the Catholic Counter-Reformation of the 16th and 17th

centuries. Weisberg explores and transforms these themes through the renaissance tradition of figurative art and the personal arena of memory and relationships. Indeed, she depicts herself and her family members as Cagnacci’s protagonists. In so doing, the artist reconfigures the emotional power of a specific reference as it is modified by her own beliefs and experiences.

Ruth Weisberg: Guido Cagnacci and the Resonant Image is organized by Gloria Williams Sander, Curator, Norton Simon Museum. A series of special programs accompanies the exhibition, including a lecture by Ruth Weisberg, a three-part adult education course on Baroque and neo-Baroque art, exhibition tours, a workshop for teens led by Ruth Weisberg, and a lecture on the interactions between painting and theater in the age of the Baroque by Michael Zampelli, S.J., a specialist in the Italian commedia dell’arte and a professor at Santa Clara University.

Father Zampelli’s lecture is accompanied by theatrical reenactments of portions of La Maddalena, lasciva e penitente by Giovan Battista Andreini, one of the most important Italian dramatists of the 17th century. On view concurrently to Ruth Weisberg is Under the Influence: Art-Inspired Art, a complementary exhibition that explores the ways in which artists have been influenced by and responded to the works of others. More than 45 artworks from the Norton Simon colle tions are featured in the exhibition. -- www.nortonsimon.org