At the eventful and memorable ceremony of An Evening of Arts & Culture at the New York Jewish Children’s Museum, Michael Rogatchi donated his Divertismento series of four oil paintings to this leading and innovative institution.
The donation of this expressive series has become a part of the ongoing co-operation between The Rogatchi Foundation and the New York Jewish Children’s Museum (JCM). The two organisations have united their efforts into reaching a wider audience with the knowledge of the cultural and historic heritage, and conducting a dialogue with both young and adult audiences in an artistic way, engaging them by the attractiveness and expressionism of art.
Commenting on his new Divertismento series, Michael Rogatchi said:
“Each of those works has its own history – and all of them are about music which is a universal language on this planet. Talk to Me is my homage to our dear friend, late Maestro Mstislav Rostropovich – whom we remember and miss every day of our life. To balance in emotions, Rain. Melon. Paris is a very joyful, ‘easy-breathing’ work which has made me smile all the time I was working on it. And the music behind it is a charming French jazz song La Fee Chochette (Tinkerbell) by acclaimed French singer Pierre Lamy; the song was truly a background music for this piece which as far as I know evokes a big smile not for myself only but among many of its viewers as well. Duetto is a work expressing a complex world of the talent: it shows that in his power and expression, the talent is nourished by those who give their unconditional, generous love, and the stream of love transforms itself into heavenly, mighty music. An attentive viewer can also note in this work how the girl’s lashes support the violist’s bow. This is all about what is inside the world of overwhelming talent. Divertismento is a continuation of my ongoing Mozartiana, a series of works depicting, in various techniques, my favourite composer, Mozart, and his image which I have created years back, and am exploring in various works continuously. To me, the Mozart’s music is like the laugh of a butterfly – and Divertismento, both the work and the series has this butterfly’s laugh as its most distinctive feature.”
Michael Rogatchi also explained the connection between his Divertismento series and the Museum he has donated the works to:
“Music is the world where we all live, since our first lullabies till whatever one prefers to listen to at any moment of his or her life. Music grows with us, in us, and we grow with and in music, too. The power of music as ‘a tool’ of upbringing and education is probably immeasurable. The girl in Rain. Melon. Paris refers to the joy and easiness of childhood; the butterfly in Divertismento brings us to the best moments of our childhood’s summers; the outpouring strength of love in Duetto reminds of the mightiest love sensations in our youth; and the elegia of Talk to Me tells of those moments when we are trying desperately to find the answers to the questions that might strike us at any moment. I believe that this series tells about our feelings and emotions at all ages but it starts and ends in one’s childhood – and that’s why I thought that it would be appropriate for the works to be in the wonderful, warm, innovative, intelligent, kind and very engaging Museum – the Jewish Children’s Museum in New York. To think that those particular works will be here gives me special, elevating pleasure.”
The Museum and the public presented at the ceremony had accepted the works of Michael Rogatchi enthusiastically and has praised the artist very highly.