Rita Blitt Around and Round

The viewer needs to be as creative in viewing a work of art as the artist was in creating it~Irwin Blitt

I was drawn to this book by the cover art, so joyous and uplifting. I had not encountered Rita Blitt or her art before reading Rita Blitt: Around and Round.

The cover art is a detail of "Celebrating Fall in Aspen", 2003. The landscape is reduced to near abstraction, yet the lines and color combine in a recognizable image of autumnal color against a blue sky.

The accompanying essays gave me insight into Blitt's life, how her art developed over her career, and an understanding of her art.

The book features art donated to the Mulvane Art Museum at Washburn University in Topeka, KS. 

I loved her early work "The Red Barn", the impressionistic style and vivid colors broken by the geometric division of a fence.

The Red Barn, 1958, by Rita Blitt

"Fir Trees in Aspen" recalls a dark forest dappled with sunlight as if highlighting hope in our darkest moment. 

Fir Trees in Aspen

Inspired by music, in the late 1990s Blitt began working with two hands. It allowed Blitt to be more centered. She communicates movement into her work, especially in response to dance and music. 

Hope by Rita Blitt

Celebrating Dorianna, 1996, Rita Blitt

Jamie Metzl writes in the essay Rita's Legacy, "The right way to look at these images is slowly and carefully, taking in the simple complexity of shape and color until you start to feel your heart lightening, an innocent joy bubbling up from inside of you."

As I studied Blitt's art, I knew I had encountered a soul filled with joy, and open to the creative and emotional life. The more I study her art, the more I see.

I was impressed to learn about the Kindness Program, which Blitt organized in 1990. Students write essays to nominate
individuals and groups for the Kindest Kansas Citian Award and Rita Blitt Kindest School Award.

Red, Yellow and Blue sculptures at the Rita Blitt Sculpture Garden, Mulvane Museum, Washburn University, Topeka, Kansas.

I won a free ebook from the publisher through a Publisher's Weekly giveaway. My review is fair and unbiased.

See pages from the book at the publisher's website here and eighteen pages at Amazon.com here. Visit Blitt's Facebook page here.

from the publisher

Rita Blitt: Around and Round is an overview of more than sixty years of work by Rita Blitt (b. 1931), a renowned contemporary American artist. Blitt’s dynamic body of work is distinguished by the sense of joy expressed through her pieces—sculptures, paintings, drawings, video, and more. Her work has been showcased in more than 70 one-person exhibitions and has been acquired by many museums and private collections. Her sculptures, some of them as tall as 60 feet, can be found throughout the U.S. and in Japan, Australia, and Singapore

The book presents a thoughtful selection of Blitt’s artwork, with a particular focus on the paintings and drawings that form the core of her studio practice and that are often studies for her highly acclaimed sculptures. More than 100 color plates and reproductions are included in these pages, along with essays by scholars and colleagues that provide context and interpretations of Blitt’s work and practice

Rita Blitt: Around and Round
Connie Gibbons, Editor
Mulvane Art Museum
$45.00 Trade Edition
Publication Date: September 15, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-7322978-4-5