Students of Sanford Roth trek to his studio, apartment 2A in a loft building on the near west side, to learn how to paint and draw. Roth’s bent is to start his followers on exercises. In teaching abstract painting, he may have his students put down a color wash first, later encouraging them to add scribbles and a grid. Then he lets them loose.
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“In order to gain from your mistakes, you have to go out and make some,” reads an aphorism mounted on the wall. Wandering around, the soft-spoken Roth dispenses bits of philosophy designed to encourage freedom and experimentation. “Paint, don’t think,” he is apt to say. Or: “If you don’t go for broke, you won’t have anything in the end.” Or: “Say you’re driving out to Skokie and all of a sudden you realize you’re on the wrong expressway. You’re a fool if you don’t stop and correct your mistake. It’s the same with painting–if it’s not working, start over.”
Roth grew up in New Jersey, the older brother of novelist Philip Roth. “I was a kid during the Depression,” he says. “When I was 16, I was living at home in Newark, and it came to me one day that my father paid for everything in our lives. He bought all the clothes, all the food. I thought to myself, how was I ever going to do that? It was overwhelming to me, and the work ethic became powerful, powerful.” Trained in art at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, he worked as an illustrator and then as a creative director in advertising, earning a substantial wage.
The exhibit “The Painters in 2A” features work by ten Roth students. It opens Friday, March 31, with a free reception from 5:30 to 8 at the gallery InsideArt, 1651 W. North. The show continues through April 9. Call 772-4416 for more.
