Arrangements in Jazz
2025
22 × 22 in
55.88 x 55.88 cm
Oil, acrylic, charcoal, collage on linen
2025
16 × 20 in
Oil, acrylic, charcoal, collage on linen
2025
18 × 24 in
Oil, acrylic, charcoal, collage on linen
2025
22 × 24 in
55.88 x 60.96 cm
Oil, acrylic, charcoal, collage on linen
2025
20 × 22 in
50.8 x 55.88 cm
Oil, acrylic, charcoal, collage on linen
2025
22 × 28 in
55.88 x 71.12 cm
Oil, acrylic, charcoal, collage on linen
2024
66 × 60 in
167.64 x 152.4 cm
Oil, acrylic, charcoal, graphite, on linen
2010
24 × 24 in
60.96 x 60.96 cm
Oil, acrylic, charcoal, collage on linen
Private Collection
2025
28 × 26 in
71.12 x 66.04 cm
Oil, acrylic, charcoal, collage on linen
2010
16 × 20 in
40.64 x 50.8 cm
Oil, acrylic, printmaking ink, charcoal, collage on linen
Private Collection
2010
20 × 20 in
50.8 x 50.8 cm
Oil, acrylic, charcoal, collage on linen
Private Collection
2010
16 × 20 in
40.64 x 50.8 cm
Oil, acrylic, charcoal, collage on linen
Private Collection
Arrangements in Jazz
In URBAN BOP, Robert Roth channels the rhythmic spirit of jazz into a series of paintings shaped by emotion, energy, and improvisation. The works draw from the atmosphere of the city, its worn textures, low-lit clubs, and the pulse of sound — where music, movement, and feeling blur into a single experience. Roth’s compositions unfold through layered fields of color interrupted by spontaneous brushwork, searching lines, and scratched-in marks that appear, disappear, and reemerge. Forms move through atmospheric space, cutting across a geometry of color like sound through air. Painted collage elements catch the light as subtle shifts in tone surface and dissolve, creating a quiet sense of motion. Fragments of words and letters drift across the surface like notes, riffing moments of tension, rhythm, and pause. The surfaces feel worn-in and lived-with, shaped by repetition, memory, and improvisation — charged yet restrained. The paintings feel both structured and instinctive, echoing jazz’s balance of discipline and freedom. Jazz has been a constant presence in Roth's studio since his years at the Rhode Island School of Design. Working late into the night with Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, filling the room, he allows rhythm and tempo to shape the cadence of each painting. URBAN BOP reflects Roth’s intuitive approach to abstraction. Geometry and gesture coexist, while layers of color drift and overlap. Through these works, Roth seeks to capture jazz’s inner resonance — the emotional charge, the sense of movement, and the way music moves through us and speaks to the soul.
“It’s not the notes you play, it’s the notes you don’t play.” - Miles Davis
