The Human Touch: Selections from the RBC Dain Rauscher Collection
February 16, 2008 - April 20, 2008
Onofrio Gallery
Stimulating. Challenging. Diverse. These are just a few of the adjectives that describe the permanent art collection of RBC Dain Rauscher. Comprised of approximately 400 artworks, the collection reflects the contemporary society in which the firm operates. With the human figure as its focus, the collection ranges from serious to whimsical, and from realistic to abstract. Taken as a whole, it also acknowledges and celebrates the diversity that is so important to RBC Dain Rauscher, showcasing the works of both emerging and established artists. This exhibition, The Human Touch: Selections from the RBC Dain Rauscher Collection, was selected as a representation of the whole collection. The title refers to both the ability of the figure to reflect the human condition and to the facility of artists to depict it. Since the beginning of time, depictions of human and animal figures have been the primary form of artistic expression. The earliest cave paintings and crude sculptures centered on matters most important in pre-historic times – the success of the hunt and human fertility. As societies evolved, representations of the figure continued to be important expressions of human aspirations. Early on, they reflected society’s concern with the spiritual world and the unknown, as gods and spirits took human form. Later, a more humanistic outlook emerged as the secular concerns of daily life began to be depicted. RBC Dain Rauscher features the human figure in its art collection because it believes that this age-old need to understand the human condition is still vital and that the human form remains its most direct manifestation. Even during the rise of non-objective art in the twentieth-century, the figure remained a valid and popular subject. Despite its obvious associations with realism, figurative art has much in common with the expressionistic aspirations of abstraction. Both, at their cores, help define – and reflect upon – the story of their time.
Donald McNeil
Curator, RBC Dain Rauscher
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