Art Among the Stacks

Friends and family of the late artist Paul Rabut gathered in the Westport Library's Great Hall last week to honor their friend and fellow artist.  

The retrospective, entitled "After Hours" is a series of more than 20 abstract paintings that reveals the evolution of the artist's style.   This is the first time the entire span of his work has been shown publicly.

The artist's wife, Peggy, 93, was excited to have her husband's work displayed and said that she was, "So glad to share it with everyone because it's been under wraps for so many years."  

Surrounded by two of her four children, Peggy Rabut discussed Paul's work, saying that he, "Started little by little, but became braver."

Four of Rabut's fellow artists and friends were instrumental in bringing the work to the attention of the Library's Community Relations Director, Joan Hume.  Neil Hardy, Leonard Everett Fisher, Howard Munce and Ellen Naftalin, worked alongside Peggy to have Paul Rabut's work re-matted and hung.  Neil Hardy says, "A lot of us felt it was time to have a commemorative exhibit."  Leonard Everett Fisher adds, "Paul was the ultimate draftsman-craftsman and was well known in his day."

When Rabut moved to Westport in 1949, he already had an established career as an illustrator for major magazines, such as Life and The Saturday Evening Post and was a much sought after artist in the field of commercial advertising.   He was renowned for his illustration style, which combined detailed drawing with dramatic visual compositions.  Rabut was the recipient of several major awards; including an Art Directors Club Medal for his editorial work in American Girl magazine and several subsequent Art Directors Club awards for both advertising and editorial work.  He also designed three United States postage stamps.

While his professional work was held in high regard, it was in his private work where his very personal, abstract style evolved.    Using the remaining paint from his commercial assignments, Rabut would passionately paint "after hours" on any available surface - wood, canvas and even the back of an old book.   

Rabut's first works, in the 1940s, included landscape, figural and avian references, however, by the 1950s his work took on a distinctive flow of line which became the backbone of his style.   Most of the work on display represents the human figure, stretched and exaggerated, but grounded in his formal academic training.  Through the 1950s and 60s, the quality of the line becomes even more streamlined as the artist continued to push the artistic limits of form and abstract painting.    The use of bright oranges, cobalt blues and warm browns, in sharp contrast to the black of the line is striking and draws the eye to the fine, undulating quality of the line.

The paintings of Paul Rabut will be on display at in the Great Hall of the Westport Public Library through January.