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| AI image by Gemini for illustrative purposes only |
originally appearing in The Ornomath Journal, 06/24/09
Mark Ruschman's One Helluva Ride
About a month ago, I ran into David Kadlec, who used to run Eye Blink, a gallery in the Murphy Art Center. As two former gallery guys, the subject was showing art. He asked me if I ever thought about opening up a new place. It wasn't really a question maybe, probably just small talk. Truth is, I think about it quite often still — even though next year marks ten years since I closed my final commercial space. Besides Grateful Dead concerts and great stuff I did as a kid, running an art gallery was the most fun I’ve ever had doing something.
I told Kadlec no. I remarked that the local scene had changed. Things — the world — had moved on. “They don’t even do solo shows anymore,” I said. Kadlec reminded me, “Ruschman still does solo shows, doesn’t he?”
I first saw Ruschman Gallery in 1992 or 3, just before I walked a couple doors down to Bill Adkins’ In Vivo art gallery when they were still neighbors on Massachusetts Ave. By then the Indy ‘golden age’ of contemporary art was arguably ending. A 'phase two' was sorting itself out with In Vivo closing and Ruschman relocating to the slightly more remote and exclusive situation on Alabama Street. Hot House and Four Star were on the horizon.
I recall just one art detail from that day — a large calm Steve Paddack painting leaning against a wall in an upstairs storage room at In Vivo. It was a painting of a corner of an empty room leaning in the corner of an empty room. That painting, in that place, inspired me to take up paint brushes myself and open a gallery that might see fit to have such large impossible things inside and even hang them on the wall.
I didn't visit Ruschman Gallery often. Perhaps just a handful of times over all those years. Ruschman's activities were covered thoroughly in the art press though — spanning Steve Mannheimer all the way to Konrad Marshall — so you could keep up with his vision whether you saw it in the flesh or not.
When I had a gallery, I noticed all the young local artists aspired to be with Ruschman. Clearly he was able to balance business with beauty better than anyone else in Indianapolis.
At that time, in my young and dumber days, I found Ruschman Gallery ‘safe’ with its stable of regional academics. Keep in mind I was just an up and comer, trying to distinguish myself somehow. Hard knocks later, I grew to admire his long run business model. It contrasted so clearly with my crash and burn through the savings five-year plan. Ruschman’s was the tougher way, the road less traveled in the long haul, as my highway was littered with not only the wreck of my Five Ten Gallery, but with the rusting hulks of prior makes like 431 and In Vivo, and the accidents waiting to happen still on the drawing board — Oblique, EM Gallery, LAMP, Eye Blink, Everyday Inventors, Penumbra, FLUX and more. I'm not insulting us flameouts, just attesting to the dependability and durability behind Ruschman's nameplate.
Ruschman was always the standard. Others maybe wanted to be more experimental than Ruschman. Have bigger walls than Ruschman. Have more young artists than Ruschman. More 'laid back' atmosphere than Ruschman. More sculpture, more installations. More music, more themes, more chainsaws of death, whatever. In reality though, probably — just be the next Ruschman — certainly in terms of success.
We beg for change, and then it comes. The Murphy Building is for sale — IMOCA’s fired the paid staff and is tightening its belt— some Indy artists who have 'chose to stay' have finally gotten an exhibit at the Indiana State Museum (but not that many really, not when you consider all those who did not) — and now, Ruschman Gallery is closing — clearing out — bolting the doors.
That Ruschman Gallery lasted almost to a silver anniversary makes the reason for the closure seem all the more preposterous — mere economics — according to the David Hoppe interview with Mark Ruschman in this week's NUVO. Life is short, art is long, right? Oh well, maybe the math don't lie. In the same Hoppe article Ruschman does imply that in addition to the deep recession the changing numbers and habits of Indy's art collectors weighed in as an impulse to his final decision.
Maybe Ruschman will change his mind. Maybe this economy can turn on a dime. Whatever comes next — if Ruschman parks his Cadillac for good — the ride won't be the same.
Mark Diekhoff, June, 2009
see also:
On the Cusp : After 25 years, Ruschman Gallery Closing
Indy Star - Art Seen : Ruschman Gallery Closing After 25 Years
Indiana Economic Digest : Economy leads to Ruschman closing downtown Indianapolis art gallery
