My first artist crush, Susan Rothenberg
Ah the simple pleasures of painting. All those gorgeous painterly brushstrokes! You feel and see her every movement on these canvases. When you stand in front of a Susan Rothenberg painting you become a witness to her very personal viewpoint, making it an experience rather than just a painting. She sets a stage for you to feel you are a participant in.
Thomas Micchelli has written of her:
Rothenberg begins with negation, cleaving away all that’s inessential,
then reaches forward and backward in time, gathering whatever she needs,
probing inward toward formalism and outward toward experience, one hand
in the clay and the other in the air.
In a career that spans over 40 years, expectedly there are some paintings I am much more in love with than others so here I present some of my absolute favorites...
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| Dogs Killing Rabbit, 1991-92, oil on canvas, 87 x 141 inches |
"A lot of my work is about melodrama. I wait for Bruce to fall off a
horse and then I go, 'Oh, okay, the horse’s legs were there, the fence
post was there, his hat flew off there...'"
- Susan Rothenberg
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| Accident #2, 1993-94, oil on canvas, 66 x 125 inches |
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| Calling the dogs, 1993-94, oil on canvas, 69 x 65 inches |
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| With Martini, 2002, oil on canvas, 76 x 87 inches |
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| Blue Flip, 1989-90, oil on canvas, 55 x 46 inches |
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| White Deer, 1999-2001, oil on canvas, 91 1/2 x 112 inches |
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| Blue U-Turn, 1989, oil on canvas |
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| Galisteo Creek, 1992, oil on canvas, 112 x 148 inches |
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| Falling, 2001, oil on canvas, 84 x 72 inches |
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| Four Color Horse, 1976, acrylic and flashe on canvas, 67 x 112 inches |
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| 4 Kinds, 1991, oil on canvas, 52 x 88 inches |
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| Dog and Snake, 2004-05, oil on canvas, 49 3/4 x 36 1/2 inches |
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| Untitled (Geese), 1999, Etching, aquatint, and sugar-lift aquatint on chine collé, 13 11/16 x 20 1/2 inches |
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| The Corner, 2008, oil on canvas, 71 x 57 inches |
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| Crying, 2003, 5 color lithograph/screenprint, 34 x 35 inches |
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| Steak and Wine, 2000, oil on canvas, 81 x 91 inches |
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| [I've searched all morning for the title of this painting. If anyone knows the image details please let me know] |
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| Hawk, 1993-94, oil on canvas, 37 5/8 x 63 5/8 inches |
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| Susan Rothenberg in her studio |
Further looking and reading:
Sperone Westwater Gallery
art21
BLOUINARTINFO
MutualArt
Current Exhibition at Sperone Westwater Gallery
4 November – 20 December 2016
