Remembering Rita Argen Auerbach (1933-2024)

Rita Argen Auerbach is well-known as a watercolor painter, educator, and past president of the Buffalo Society of Artists. Sadly, Rita passed away on May 18th having remained engaged with our museum just days before.

Born in Buffalo, Rita continued to live in the region, except for four years spent in Morocco while her husband, Richard, served in the U.S. Navy, and in subsequent travels around the world. Rita received her bachelor's and master's degrees in art education from SUNY College at Buffalo, which led to a twenty-year career as an art teacher in Clarence Central Schools. She also served as district art department chair and was named Western New York Art Educator of the Year in 1993.

Rita received many awards and honors during her career. Her work is represented in museum, corporate, and private collections throughout the United States. Her watercolor paintings were included in regional, national, and international juried group exhibitions, notably including the National League of American Pen Women and the Erie and Niagara Landscape Exhibition in Dortmund, Germany. She also curated exhibitions, including Wet & Fresh: A Survey of Current Watercolor in Western New York in 2004.

The inveterate art teacher conducted painting workshops in Costa Rica, France, Italy, and Spain. She served on the faculty of the Chautauqua Institution Special Studies Program and was a delegate to the Chautauqua Institution/Eisenhower Institute Conference on U.S.-Soviet Relations in Riga, Latvia, where the Academy of Art gave her a solo exhibition in the 1980s. Her sketches of the trip became the Conference's official gift to the Soviet Government and are published in Sketches and Reflections of a Journey. Articles about her painting techniques appeared in American Artist and Watercolor.

Last year, Rita’s children Bradford, Carrie, and Glenn Auerbach lent works from their collections for the retrospective Rita Argen Auerbach: Legacy, on view at the Center from June 9 through September 24, 2023. An illustrated catalog documented the show. They also generously donated four works from the exhibition that enriched the museum’s collection previously consisting of nine works. These new additions provided themes and painting techniques that had not been represented before. Moroccan Intrigue (1986) represents a significant period in Rita’s life as a military wife overseas and it’s where her daughter Carrie was born. She captured the unique architecture and culture for which this North African city is known. Memorial (1988) documents her trip to Riga, Latvia escorting a student art exchange program. Her invitational solo show included this painting to demonstrate American patriotism. For Green Grains (2014), Rita experimented with her color palette, starting the background with transparent pastel washes, then painting the suggested mass of grain elevators in Buffalo Harbor, thereby creating an impression that belies the reality of drab industrial colors. And Burnt Sienna (2018) depicts a dilapidated building in a poor Buffalo neighborhood that contrasts with familiar architectural edifices Rita usually painted. Proceeds from Museum Store sale of her other exhibited works go to the Auerbach Endowment that supports our education programs and watercolor exhibitions. 

This generosity follows the Auerbach familial tradition. Rita frequently donated paintings for fundraisers, such as galas and special programs. As a member of the museum’s council, Rita painted two buffaloes for the "Herd About Buffalo" public art project in 2000 which helped raise $1.3 million dollars for Roswell Park Cancer Institute and the Center. During our capital campaign for a new, state-of-the art building in the early 2000’s, Rita and Dick Auerbach helped fundraise, especially among their Buffalo State alumni friends. 

Over the decades, Rita remained dedicated to the Center. The instances mentioned above are just the tip of the iceberg to share her involvement here. My personal favorite memories include our conversations about her trip to Giverny, France, where she had the honor of painting in Claude Monet's gardens. They gave her permission to use water from the famous waterlily pond to create her paintings. In my curatorial opinion, they were among her most inspired works, which we were proud to exhibit in 1997. My voice is just one among so many in our region who knew and cared for Rita. She led a long and successful career, so she will be missed.

Nancy Weekly

Burchfield Scholar, Head of Collections & Charles Cary Rumsey Curator

Burchfield Penney Art Center