"Maureen Rosen's paintings deal with man trapped within himself, his existential reality beyond the day to day life. Words inevitably fail to precisely define this state and its only expression is on the metaphorical level. Maureen's paintings present to us man, universal man, captured in a moment which transcends time and place in order to achieve expression on a lyrical and philosophical level. Maureen's seeming realism is therefore not specific to an actual place. She doesn't overburden us with details such as locality, objects or sweeping emotions associated with poverty, pain, violence or passion. Even when her figures appear in groups they remain detached. The individual is sunk into himself and the viewer is drawn into reflections that touch on the meaning of human existence. It is possible to say, that the subject of Maureen's paintings is the inescapable isolation of the individual, his alienation and the void that surround him. Yet all this is achieved without dramatic exaggeration. Her sensitive brushstrokes combine with a warm palette to create works that are both beautiful and aesthetic." - Yaakov Korlander - Tzavta Curator
"THE MASS OF THE COLLECTIVE OBJECT Man in society is the central theme in Maureen Rosen’s works. As an artist who is in tune with society’s happenings, she transfers her emotions through the “ mass of the collective object”. The social circumstances reduce the public to an entity with common interests and in the process this entity materializes into a mass containing the properties that characterize the individual, the man alone. Her canvases are inhabited by people, in oils or mixed media, compositions of crowds moving either in random space, or otherwise crowded into city-squares. Maureen moves from the detail to the general, and her realization of “crowds” belong to the end of the post-modernism period. As such, she joins a whole row of artists whose interests are in the figurative, and in the philosophical questioning about the spirit of man and society. One is reminded of Rodin, on the one hand, who in his works gave expression to man’s meditative spirit and deep passions, or Giocometti on the other hand, who searched for the truth within man, and whose figures, erect and elongated, preserve detachment within communication. In Maureen’s works, there is no dialogue between figures, and yet one can recognize that they move within a certain social code, and together form an entity exhibiting traits which can be felt either as joy or sorrow, often felt as if by an observer looking in. The anonymity and detachment in society, which characterise our time, stand out in Maureen’s works, which are rich in creative expression. Her works, in their critical relationship to society, are unique and distinctive." - Dr. Zvika Israel Chairman of the Israeli Painters and Sculptor's Association Northern Branch
