Chinatown

Chinatown has some good restaurants. The best ones are family owned. Sometimes you can be the only non-Asian there. One of my favorites is the Tea Party Dim Sum (1920). One time when I went, I remembered a small, tasty dish I had had, but couldn’t remember the name. I tried to describe it to the waitress, with her large silvery tray of many dishes, but no luck. Then, I thought, I’ll draw a picture, so I asked for a paper and pencil. She disappeared and came back with paper and pencil. She disappeared again, and as I was drawing away, I happened to look up where the huge silver doors, which led to the kitchen. I noticed, one by one, seven chefs in white outfits walked out and were standing side by side close to the silver doors, and all eyes were right on me! They were getting the biggest kick out of me drawing. The waitress returned, looked, and said, “Oh yes, we have dinosaur soup,” and walked away with a little giggle.

Prose Poems: CopyRight 2015

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank the following people, who never wavered

In their excitement and support of the project:

Ann Tanenbaum, art patron

Melvin Walker, lover of art

Lois Gremore, dance teacher

Daniel Ragone, opera coach

I also wish to acknowledge the invaluable encouragement of Barbara Ann Levy, gallery owner and art lover. I also wish to acknowledge Ken Johnson who wrote in the The New York Times in 2000 – artist, poet, and former professional ballet dancer.

ROHR THE UNEXPECTED

KORNBLEE GALLERY

“Staggering technique. I was held, from painting to painting, by the spectacle of such craftsmanship. “

John Canaday, The New York Times (1971)

"A  silence , by comparison , makes Munch's Scream read like a child's fairy tail.
-Judith Van  Baron/Arts Magazine (1974).

“I’m starting to hallucinate.”

Two studio visits, New York Times critic Vivien Raynor (2008)

 “Rohr is subtle, raw, beautiful, and real… and sometimes he does a Grand Pirouette.”

ROBERT FRANK ROHR

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

Robert.F.Rohr@gmail.com

BORN:                                    Cleveland, Ohio. 1935.

                                    Now living and working in New York City.

EDUCATION:             Serge Nadejdin, Imperial Russian Ballet School

Art Director – Former Imperial Theaters of Russia, and Ballet Soloist

                                    School of American Ballet, New York City

American Ballet Theater – Full scholarship through Dimitri Romanoff

TEACHING POSITION:         Assistant teacher and choreographer,

                                                Gremore Dance School, Oberlin, Ohio

DANCER:                    Cafarelli Opera Company,

                                    Cleveland Orchestra, Cleveland, Ohio

Rohr has performed works by Herbert Bliss, Madeline Graves, Thomas Andrew, Peter Gadke, Nelle Fisher and The Bolshoi Ballet (Spartacus), The Metropolitan Opera House, and Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo II (Gala Spring Performance of “Blue Bird Pas de Deux” from The Sleeping Beauty)

REVIEWS:                  Elmore Bacon                                    Cleveland Plain Dealer            1955

                                    Jim Frankel                            Cleveland Plain Dealer            1956

                                    One World Day Celebration Cleveland Plain Dealer            1958

                                    Jim McCafferty                      Columbus Ohio Dispatch        1963

ENAMELIST:             Kulicke Academy Art Institute

                                    Metropolitan Museum of Art *

                                    A La Vieille Russie *

                                    Cartier, Tiffany, Steuben Glass *

                                    Carvin French Jewelers

FINE ANTIQUE RESTORATION (New York, Restorer):

                                    Charles Sunquist

                                    Ackerman and Son

                                    Sotheby’s / Christie’s

                                    Arnold Glimcher

                                    The Franklin Report (book) ★★★★★

WRITER:                   Prose, Poems, “All Was Beautiful Until You Came”

* by commission

ROBERT FRANK ROHR

AWARDS:

1957-Serge Nadejdin- Full scholarship
1985 – Funded by Artist’s Space Grants, New York, through The National Endowment for the Arts

1990 – Melvin Walker Estate

PRINCIPAL COLLECTIONS:

Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, III
Rockefeller University, New York

Ann Tanenbaum, New York

Charles and Sylvia Tanenbaum, New York

New York University

City University of New York

St. Vincent’s Comprehensive Cancer Center, New York

St. Luke-Roosevelt Hospital, New York

Cordelia Roosevelt, New York

Paul T. Khoury, MD, New York

Boricua College, New York

John Contigugalia, New York

John Ong, MD, New Jersey

Sharadh Bhaskharone, New York

Kayt Brill Bech, New York

Juan Carlos Negrete, Mexico

Thomas Kortus, Prague Czech Republic
Gail Goldwasser, Beverly Hills CA
Barbara Korbin PsyD MfT, New York
Lois Gremore, Oberlin Ohio
(Anonymous), Australia
(Anonymous), Philippines
(Anonymous), India
(Anonymous), Puerto Rico
Michael Chong-Castillo, New York

REVIEWS:

Vivien Raynor, Two studio visits (2008)

Mary Abell, Selections: painting, catalogue essay, Dowling College (2001)

Ken Johnson, The New York Times (2000)

The New Jersey Art Forum (1982)

Dorothy Hall, Park East (1976)

Judith Von Baron, Arts Magazine (1974)

John Canaday, The New York Times (1970)

Yale University Library, Rose Gerlach Collection, Kornblee Gallery, New York.

Third Annual Art Students Seminar; Dowling College Visual Arts Department

Round Table Discussion – “The Creative Process of Robert Frank Rohr”

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2007               BORICUA COLLEGE, NEW YORK

2000               BARBARA ANN LEVY GALLERY, NEW YORK

2000               THE CENTER FOR PSYCHOTHERAPY

1998               BARBARA ANN LEVY GALLERY, LONG ISLAND

1996-1997    THE CENTER FOR PSYCHOTHERAPY, NEW YORK

1991-1993    DUNCAN GALLERY, NEW YORK

1989               UPSTAIRS GALLERY, NEW YORK

1986               KORNBLEE GALLERY, NEW YORK

1983-1985    THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK

1982               UPSTAIRS GALLERY, NEW YORK

1979               FABER GALLERY, NEW YORK

1976               DUNCAN GALLERY, NEW YORK

1973               KORNBLEE GALLERY

1971               KORNBLEE GALLERY

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2001               ISLIP ART MUSEUM, LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK

2001               A. GIORDANO GALLERY, DOWLING COLLEGE, OAKDALE, NEW YORK

2000-2001    BARBARA ANN LEVY GALLERY, LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK

2000/03/04 ARTISTS ARCHIVES OF WESTERN RESERVE, CLEVELAND, OHIO

1997               LEVY-GORMLEY GALLERY, LONG ISLAND

1986               KRAINE CLUB GALLERY, NEW YORK

1982               THE PINES, LONG ISLAND

1982               PICTURE GALLERY, NEW YORK

1982               RIZZOLI GALLERY, NEW YORK

1980               FABER GALLERY, NEW YORK

1979               ERLICH GALLERY, NEW YORK

1979               CORPORATE ART DIRECTIONS, NEW YORK

1979               CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART, CLEVELAND, OHIO

1976               NEW GALLERY, RUSSELL SAGE COLLEGE, TROY, NEW YORK

1976               KORNBLEE GALLERY, NEW YORK

1975               COUTURIER GALLERY, STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT

1973               KORNBLEE GALLERY, NEW YORK

1972               WORKS ON PAPER BALTIMORE MUSEUM OF ART, BALTIMORE, MD

1971               AVANTI GALLERY, NEW YORK

1971               MEMBERS GALLERY, ALBRIGHT-KNOX, BUFFALO, NY

ROBERT FRANK ROHR

Paintings – SCROLL

Oil Stick on Cloth Paper

 Artist’s Statement

These are paintings depicting my fascination with the power of the human face, which, for me, often lies at variance from the typical American idea of beauty.