Grace Graupe-Pillard Movie/Art Reviews : April 2023

The last time I took a bus traveling through the Bronx was in 2008 when I frequently visited Montefiore Hospital and shortly thereafter Calvary Hospital/Hospice where my mother lay dying receiving palliative care. I always chose the front seat on the bus so I could look out the driver’s translucent windows observing the teeming vibrancy of the neighborhoods we careened through. The ride back and forth became a bridge from vitality to death-a time of reflective memories and the finality of loss. At that time I noticed how some buildings were also collapsing, slowly fading away into the dusty ground while others were being renovated - rising up from decline.

I was on the way to The Bronx Museum to see the exhibition Swagger and Tenderness - The South Bronx Portraits featuring the artworks of John Ahearn and Rigoberto Torres. This bus trip was different from 15 years ago. The Bronx where I grew up in my teen years having moved from Washington Heights was being “refurbished” - a double-edged sword grinding the buoyant culture of street games, locally owned stores/bodegas, and families sitting outside on stoops talking about the shared vicissitudes of their lives - both joyful and painful - which was slowly being eroded. But once I arrived at the Museum the world had tipped over again and I was drawn into the images of the inhabitants of this vital South Bronx community realizing that the breadth and breath of a neighborhood could not easily be extinguished.

I have been a fan of John Ahearn’s art since the early 1980s when I first glimpsed the four young girls on the side of a Bronx building playing “Double Dutch” jump rope. I was deeply touched by the profound affection, and “there-ness” displayed toward his subjects without resorting to any contrivances. I soon learned that John joined with Rigoberto Torres who had made plaster casts in his Uncle’s statuary store and that life-long partnership, each with distinctive stylistic and painterly touches is ongoing.

The Museum walls are painted a resonant blue - a bridging of sky and water; the sculptures float in that atmospheric space. Many works are collaborations - and I often wondered who did what? Separately I could often distinguish their stylistic differences, particularly in the acrylic painting on the casts. The “tenderness of the exhibition’s title is evident in almost every piece. The “swagger” is also visible, but the delicate beauty of John’s and Rigoberto’s brushwork with its range of skin tones and exuberant colors unearthed the humanity that exists below the veneer of bravado. I was uplifted by this generous exhibition allowing me entry into the gift of loving relationships be it with a parent, child, or friends.

https://bronxmuseum.org/exhibition/swagger-and-tenderness-the-south-bronx-portraits-by-john-ahearn-rigoberto-torres/