henry rasmussen

the beckomberga mask series

january 19th, 2017 - april 14th, 2017

about the artist…

Henry Rasmussen, born in Copenhagen, Denmark, spent his formative years in Sweden. Upon mastery of an education in graphic design, he began painting and started to develop a respectable body of work. However, the responsibilities of a growing family and a move to California, halfway around the world, forced him to put his art career on the back burner.

 Settling in Silicon Valley in the 1970s, Rasmussen was immediately hired as a graphic designer, but soon started his own company, offering design and marketing services to clients nationwide. In 1999, after putting out several books on photography and having served as an art director for a publishing house, he founded Black & White Magazine. Over time, this publication for fine art photographers grew to a circulation of more than 35,000 in 50 countries. In 2005, its sale allowed Rasmussen to return to his first love — painting. 

 In 2010, Rasmussen began work on The Beckomberga Mask Series: Victims and Victimizers, which allowed him to express himself through his art in ways that related more strongly to the human condition than his previous work. Both figurative and abstract, with their full frontal views of the human face — and their focus on the few elements of eyes, mouth and mask — these paintings allow for an endless interpretation of emotions: anger, pain, surprise, fear, despair... and inevitably awaken the same emotions in viewers.