Rita Argen Auerbach is a nationally recognized artist whose award winning watercolors are represented in numerous museum, corporate and private collections. Articles about her paintings have been published in American Artist and Watercolor Magazines.
Auerbach’s paintings are best known as representation of her appreciation for the architectural jewels of Buffalo, NY, Chautauqua Institution, NY. and subjects visited during extensive travel in United States and abroad. She is motivated by the way light transforms the world around her whether the subject is architecture, landscape or stillife.
She works primarily in watercolor, an elusive and challenging medium. The application of this medium on a surface of pure white paper can yield intriguing gem-like effects. She manipulates shape, form, texture, value, and color to make a strong personal statement.
“In my work, color is the most significant element that enhances the emotional qualities of my paintings. My bold and adventurous use of color is characterized by the way I exaggerate its values. In spite of its technical demands, watercolor can result in bountiful luminous appeal. Light, so much a part of nature, creates endless possibilities and presents me with the freedom to express and interpret its beauty.”
Regional, national and international competitions have selected her paintings for recognition such as The Adirondacks National Exhibition of American Watercolors; Minneapolis City of Lakes Watercolor Exhibition, Best of Show award; Mid-Atlantic Regional Watercolor Exhibition; Pennsylvania International Watercolor Exhibition, President’s Award; and Erie and Niagara Landscape Exhibition in Dortmund, Germany. In 2006, Chautauqua Institution and the Center for the Visual Arts presented her one artist exhibition Celebrating 25 Years of Painting Chautauqua.
Her paintings are included in collections in Buffalo, NY in Burchfield Penney Art Center, First Niagara Bank; Goldberg Segalla, LLP; Rich Products; Canisius College; Buffalo State College; Roswell Park Cancer Institute, and Blue Cross Blue Shield. Also, Standard Oil, Miami, FL; J.M.Smuckers, Corp, Orrville, OH; Dr. Ruth Westermier, NYC; Glinick Medical Center, Providence, RI; Castellani Art Museum, Niagara Falls, NY.
She twice served as President of the Buffalo Society of Artists, is a founding member of the Niagara Frontier Watercolor Society, and a signature member of the Pennsylvania Watercolor Society. Awards for her paintings have been earned in each of these organization’s juried exhibitions. She is listed in “Who’s Who in American Artists” and “Who’s Who in America”. The Arts Council in Buffalo and Erie County selected her Individual Artist Achievement Award, 2009.
She was named a 2004 Distinguished Alumnae from Buffalo State College where she received a B.S. and M.S. in Art Education and was a member of Alpha Sigma Alpha Sorority and Alpha Honor Society.
During a 20 year career as an art teacher in the Clarence Central Schools, she served as District Department Chair; was named 1993 Western New York Art Educator of the Year, and selected to “Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers”. Auerbach is a faculty member of the Chautauqua Institution Special Studies program since 1994 as a Master Class instructor of Watercolor workshops. She also conducted travel/workshops to Costa Rica, France, Italy and Spain.
Auerbach was a delegate to the 1986 Chautauqua Institution/Eisenhower Institute Conference on U.S./Soviet Relations in the Soviet Union. Her sketches of the trip became the Conference’s official gift to the Soviet Government and are published in her book “Sketches and Reflections of a Journey”. She was the first American woman artist to be invited for a one-artist exhibition in the Academy of Art in Riga, Latvia.
A patron of numerous cultural organizations, she has been a volunteer member on the boards of Burchfield Penney Art Center, Buffalo Arts Studio, Big Orbit, Roswell Park Cancer Institute Art Alliance, and National League of American Pen Women. Rita and her husband, Richard established the Auerbach Family Foundation for promotion of watercolor painting and art education at the Burchfield Penney Art Center. They are Sterling Scholarship donors at Buffalo State College and major donors of the Capital Campaign for the Burchfield Penney Art Center new museum.
