Rose Rock

By the late 1960s, Barbara Rossi came to be associated with the Chicago Imagists, with whom she shared an interest in the work of self-taught or uncredentialed artists. She also developed a fascination with the paintings　of Mughal India, appreciating their exquisite application of paint, their spiritual and narrative associations, and their density and multiplicity　of visual information. Rose Rock, for instance, takes its name from a moment in the　Hindu epic Harivamsa,　in which the divinity Krishna lifts Mount Govardhan to protect the villagers of Braj.

It exemplifies Rossi's work from the early 1970s, when she experimented with reverse　painting on Plexiglas and a kind of organic abstraction in which the body appears in altered, almost unrecognizable form. Using a meticulous technique with little margin for error or improvisation, Rose Rock　consists of　a single sheet of Plexiglas.　On the verso Rossi painted the main composition, which features a compressed mass of bulging, tubular forms in shades of white, pink, blue, and green that suggest animal and human body parts.　Areas of black paint frame the composition, following its contours exactly.　To the recto, Rossi applied pin-sized　dots in various colors. The white dots form regular diamond patterns, while the others, arranged in more dynamic configurations, interact with the painting on the verso, upon which they cast shadows. The dots that embellish paintings such as Rose Rock might have taken their inspiration from Rossi’s earlier quilts, which included both sequins and beads.