RITA ROGERS was born in Miami Beach and raised in Brooklyn, NY. She received a BA from Bard College and did graduate work in contemporary literature at Columbia University. She studied at the Art Students League and Yale’s Norfolk School of Art. In 1959, she moved from New York to Massachusetts and then relocated to Newport, R.I. in 1971. She was the partner of the late Charles Y. Duncan Jr., a Newport city councilman. Rogers has exhibited in New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island, including two one-woman shows in the Ilgenfritz Gallery of the Newport Art Museum. A recipient of grants from the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation and the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, she has been awarded fellowships by Yaddo, the artists’ retreat in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and by the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Her teaching career includes a 16-year period at Portsmouth Abbey, Rhode Island, where she taught painting and printmaking. An established art restorer, Roger’s treated works include paintings displayed at the landmark mansions of the Preservation Society of Newport County. In 1977, nearly all of her early work was destroyed in a fire that leveled her house. After two years during which she concentrated on printmaking, she began to paint actively again. Rogers’ work is characterized by several themes, using color, texture and space to create strong and evocative compositions. Some paintings are theatrical, mounting layer upon layer of paint, stroke by stroke, to develop kinetic imagery. Others are more contemplative, with subtle gradation of hue and texture, inviting a viewer to stop and experience the sensation of quiet. In every instance, her work is soulful. It is felt. The resulting imagery is so powerful that once encountered, one cannot help but feel enthralled and moved.
Charles yarbrough duncan jr
CHARLIE DUNCAN was a river towboat pilot and captain, a cartoonist, an author, a creator of art deco neon signs and a politician, whose life was dedicated to the conduct of a civil society. Born in Louisville, K.Y., August 5, 1934, he served in the United States Merchant Marines from 1952 to 1980. Working at first on Great Lakes ore boats, Duncan became a tow boat pilot and captain, guiding strings of barges on the lower Mississippi River. Later, he moved to Newport, R.I., and operated Duncan Signs Inc., where he handcrafted distinctive neon signs that marked the exteriors of many of the famed seacoast city’s businesses. Duncan served on the Newport Planning Board and was elected to the Newport City Council, serving from 2004 to 2012, representing the city’s First Ward neighborhood. A communicant of St. Joseph’s Church, in Newport, he was a member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians A.O.H. 1, the Knights of Columbus Newport Council and the 4th Degree General Rosecrans Assembly. A Boy Scout who achieved the rank of Eagle Scout, he was the scoutmaster of Troops 33 and 79 in Newport. Duncan also was a member of the Newport County Radio Club, using the handle “NIQAA.” In 1979, Duncan wrote and drew cartoons for a humorous book recounting the lore of boat crews and handlers working the Mississippi River, entitled “You Are Looking at My River,” published by Waterways Journal of St. Louis. The partner of the Newport artist, Rita Rogers, for 20 years, Duncan died in Newport after a long illness, on May 5, 2014.