Friday, September 1, 2006

Enjoy an ode to Croc-tales

Artist to show work on Sun Valley history


By DANA DUGAN
Express Staff Writer

"Fly Fishing on the Big Wood River" Artwork by Robert S. Greenberg

So a guy was perched at a bar in Manhattan drinking a beer and doodling on a bar napkin while contemplating the abundance of ethnicity surrounding him in the city. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, Bob Greenberg let his artist's mind distill all those multicultural faces into one androgynous, green, sharp toothed creature in his drawing.

"I was at Hard Rock, listening to Elton John's 'Crocodile Rock' and was inspired," Greenberg said while sitting in front of Java in Ketchum, Monday. "My whole world has been opened up by these crocs."

From this dubious beginning, a career was built, albeit not one following a straight line, which is only natural.

When the owner of Hard Rock, Isaac Tigrett, checked out the napkin drawing, he asked Greenberg to design a tee shirt for the centennial of the Statue of Liberty in 1986. The drawing was of the Statue of Liberty holding a martini, with a guitar. It was Hard Rock's first special edition shirt, Greenberg said. The restaurant sold 10,000 in one week. From then on, Greenberg had an in to VIP parties at the rock 'n' roll restaurant.

It was at those parties that his napkin art was further noticed and often autographed for posterity. Never leaving his signature napkin canvas or favorite Pilot Razor Point pen, Greenberg created hundreds of crocodile images over the years. Like Roy Lichtenstein who enlarged, deconstructed, and then painted cartoons, Greenberg works much the same. He still begins with napkin sketches, which are then blown up and colored in pastels. It gives his work a soft touch, a bit crumpled and tactile.

Encouraged by friends, Sun Valley residents Lou Hansell and Todd and Lisa Rippo, the artist is in the valley to exhibit new paintings based on figures from Sun Valley's history, with a twist. This is the second exhibition of works he has done for a historical town. The first was in Newport, R.I., which he successfully accomplished with a day-glow exhibition at the Newport Arts Museum in 1999.

Because he spent time in Newport with friends, he was familiar with its history and wanted to present it in a new way that might appeal to the youth of the area.

"It's a place of firsts," he said. His work, which depicted many famous citizens and pioneers, drew much attention. After all not everyone turns Sir Thomas Lipton, of tea and America's Cup history, into a crocodile at the helm of the Shamrock IV.

Newport is famous for having been the site of historical events. The first planes were flown there. The Franklin Press is there. It is the place where the first street lamp and tomatoes were introduced to the colonies.

It also is home of The Colony House, the fourth oldest statehouse still standing in the country. On July 20, 1776, Major John Handy read the Declaration of Independence from the front steps. George Washington and Comte de Rochambeau sealed an alliance at The Colony House between France and the colonies. It also contains a portrait of George Washington, painted by Gilbert Stuart, something Greenberg was itchy to see.

"Supposedly all these things—furniture, paintings, the original plate for the Declaration of Independence—were there, but no one had seen them," Greenberg said. "I did the show in Newport to try to get into The Colony House. I'm interested in the little details of history."

He not only got into The Colony House; the show was a hit, especially with students from at-risk schools who came to tour the museum and accidentally, through whimsical art, learned some history. By making the historical figures as crocodiles, it removed heritage and gender, he said.

"There are similarities between Sun Valley and Newport," Greenberg said. "Small towns, the type of people, history. When Todd and Lisa first asked me to come here, I read 'Sun Valley: An Extraordinary History' and realized there were classic iconoclastic images like the first chair lift. I like not what they look like but what they did and what that event rippled into and how it affected the rest of the country."

As well, Greenberg creates intriguing mobiles out of driftwood culled from the Hudson River. Because the show will be hung in the garage space of the Redfish Building, he will hang a mobile on the outside wall and illuminate it.

Ultimately Greenberg wants to do books of the "most beautiful towns in America and distill the fun and historical events that happened there," he said.

Of course, it will all be a bunch of crocs.

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Art Walk Event

· Crocodile Art of Robert S. Greenberg, Works on paper.

· Opening reception, 6-11 p.m., Friday, Sept. 1.

· Redfish Building, 211 Sun Valley Rd., in Ketchum.

· The show will remain up through Sunday.




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