December 10, 2025
Robert Horvath is an Associate Professor of Painting at Herron School of Art + Design, about 10 minutes’ drive from Newfields. He’s one of three contemporary artists featured in our current exhibition, Resplendent Dreams: Reawakening the Rococo. But you may not know that Pim Ruby, a former Newfields Security team member and student of Horvath’s, is also key to the exhibition’s creation.
Horvath’s immersive watercolor Room for the Lost Paradise,inspired by Rococo palace interiors, is a hidden gem towards the back of the exhibition. The room was the initial seed for the exhibition concept and wouldn’t have been possible without Ruby and others spending three years creating it.
The three Resplendent Dreams artists lean into the spirit of the French-born 18th-century Rococo period by working with studios of assistants to create what are, at their core, luxury objects. Curator Michael Vetter says, “All three artists employ processes of artmaking (hand sewing, handmade ceramics, hand painted parquet and marquetry) that are largely anachronistic and extremely expensive due to the enormous amount of human labor they require.”
The workshop model is a long-established approach that many artists continue to use, but Horvath engages it with unusual openness. While today’s artists often work with assistants and fabricators, he stands out for clearly recognizing the collaborative nature of his process and the shared work and knowledge that help shape the final piece.
The studio practice is "shrouded in mystery because no one wants to give away their methods. In reality, artists often rely on the labor of many skilled individuals to bring large projects to fruition," Horvath explains. He continues, “Partly, I am coming from the standpoint of a teacher and mentor, wanting to recognize the collective effort of my studio team who contributed to this project.” That stands out in the exhibition.
From Patrolling the Galleries to Hand Painting Boiserie
Ruby was initially waitlisted for Horvath’s Beginning Painting class at Herron due to a fully enrolled class. The rest is history, and timing has played a major role in Ruby’s journey from security rover to artist. She was first exposed to the idea of working at Newfields through visiting a booth at an IUPUI Career Day. She became a Gallery Attendant in 2018, enjoying the added perk of being able to stare at art all day.
As she transitioned to full-time Security Rover after graduation, she saw more behind-the-scenes art installations and learned more about the art world from an inside perspective. She also felt the strength of the Newfields community, loved her coworkers, and got to know many as talented artists themselves on the Security Team.
Installation view of Artists Among Us: Season Two, June 23, 2023–March 21, 2024. Artworks © their respective creators.
While she moved on from her role in 2024, contributing to this project as part of the studio team has been a meaningful full-circle moment, supporting an artwork now on display at the IMA. “I feel like it's just going to see art at a friend's house basically. I think it's just very, very cozy for me because I still have so many friends on the security team there,” Ruby reflects.
According to Horvath, who teaches all levels of painting, Ruby and the other members of the workshop were some of the best students he’s had the opportunity to teach over his 25-year career. It just fell perfectly in place that he needed to hire a group of assistants that would work with him on this large-scale piece and he had this amazing group of former students that were all exceptional.
Paradise Lost and Found
Ruby moved from Thailand to Egypt at the end of seventh grade, where she took a painting art class for the first time. The school years didn’t perfectly line up, which left her with a few months of downtime to explore drawing. For Horvath, growing up in Slovakia, he attended High School of Applied Arts (Škola Úžitkového Priemyslu) in Košice where he began to hone his craft. Then in 1992 he came to the US as an exchange student and received a merit scholarship to study painting with Elizabeth Yarosz-Ash at the Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, TX.
Both are united by a love for Thailand but also living through revolutions abroad. In Ruby’s case, it became very dangerous in Egypt in 2011, and her family moved around a bit before settling in the US. And Horvath’s first year high school experience happened alongside the Velvet Revolution in what was then Czecholovakia when communism collapsed. As a result, the opportunity to study abroad emerged.
A Natural Collaboration
While Room for Lost Paradise mimics a palace interior, it’s built on the premise of disappearing nature by featuring endangered plants and animals. Every plant included in the design is at the brink of extinction.
Horvath was inspired by the great palaces of Europe, particularly Schönbrunn Palace in Austria and its “Millions Room,” where all the wall panels are constructed using Brazilian Rosewood. Sourcing Rosewood from Central and South America was incredibly expensive at that time and is today extremely tightly regulated. Likewise, the Bergl Rooms in the palace are a series of four rooms, all designed as immersive frescos and progress from unspoiled nature to extremely manicured spaces with an increasing presence of human intervention.
Look closely at Room for Lost Paradise, and you may notice that the paintings are based on well-known works from the 18th century, particularly the Rococo genre of lighthearted garden parties known as fêtes galantes. Though in Horvath’s paintings the water has flooded the ground floors of the Doge’s Palace, and glaciers have melted in the painting after Jean-Antoine Watteau’s The Embarkation for Cythera. You can see it not having any impact on the nobility trying to enjoy each scene.
From Resplendent Dream to Reality
Horvath’s workshop took on a collective feeling, and he describes it as working synchronously with his best friends. He says, “Pim loves animals and my animals love Pim.” While all the other animals in the piece are similarly on the brink of extinction like the plants, the exceptions are his loveable cat, Dallas-Meowie, and dog, Gobi.
Because he doesn’t enjoy cooking, Horvath would often supply the ingredients and Ruby would create amazing lunches they’d enjoy together. Along the way, Ruby received invaluable career advice and the learning never stopped…a gentle nudge from Horvath sent her applying to graduate programs, and she’s currently embarking on an MFA program at Florida State University with a full ride.
