James Rosenquist painting to be unveiled at Lou Ruvo Center

Erik Kabik

The grand opening of the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health on May 22, 2010.

Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2010 | 9:28 a.m.

The Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health has announced that it will unveil the Steve Wynn-commissioned James Rosenquist painting “Cervello Spazio Cosmico” on Nov. 20 in the facility’s Events Center.

The large-scale oil-on-canvas painting, whose title is Italian for “brain space,” has been completed and will be installed immediately before its unveiling.

There are no sneak peeks, but Nicole Wolf, spokeswoman for the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, says the painting is in Rosenquist’s pop art, representational style: “It’s very brightly colored and very typical of his work.”

The artist visited the site in April and created the painting (which includes an image of a brain) for the space and to reflect the clinic’s mission. The work is 20 feet tall and 10 feet wide and will hang permanently in the Events Center.

The unveiling is a private, invitation-only event, but visitors can arrange to attend public art tours on Tuesdays and Fridays. Most of the art onsite is part of the center’s consignment art program, which includes the displaying and selling of art. Proceeds go toward supporting the Cleveland Clinic’s mission. A catalog of those works can be viewed at KeepMemoryAlive.org.

“Cervello Spazio Cosmico” is a gift to the center from Wynn and is the second piece of permanent art given to the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health. The first was a Peter Alexander sculpture, “Glass Pyramid,” which center architect Frank Gehry donated after Larry Ruvo complimented him on it.

Rosenquist, now in his late 70s, came into recognition during the pop art era and has incorporated representational and abstract, sometimes collage-style, pop culture imagery.