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Lot Essay
Susan Rothenberg, one of the most recognized of the New Image painters, was influential in the reintegration of the figure into American painting in the 1970s when the cool abstraction of Minimalist Art was in fashion. Following her participation in the 1983 Whitney Biennial, Rothenberg's paintings took on a new direction. Her early interest in emblematic subject matter turned dramatically more expressionistic in her examination of the figure in motion. Grandmother is the beginning of a more personal group of work in which Rothenberg began to include her family and friends as subjects.
Beginning with her earliest horse paintings, Susan Rothenberg has painted with a monochrome palette and Grandmother is no exception. By removing all color, Rothenberg concentrates on the movement of the brush and the texture of the paint as it is applied to the canvas, emphasizing the subtle nuances of painting. Joan Simon has written 'Grandmother is one of Rothenberg's most intimate paintings and the first in which she included two separate figures relating to each other' (Simon, ibid, p. 121). In Grandmother, the two embracing figures are doused in white light which originated from a scene Rothenberg viewed outside her studio window during one summer on Long Island. When Rothenberg saw a neighbor cradling a child in her arms, she was inspired to paint subjects that were concerned with relationships and human interaction. This painting is one of Rothenberg's most sensitive and personal works.
Beginning with her earliest horse paintings, Susan Rothenberg has painted with a monochrome palette and Grandmother is no exception. By removing all color, Rothenberg concentrates on the movement of the brush and the texture of the paint as it is applied to the canvas, emphasizing the subtle nuances of painting. Joan Simon has written 'Grandmother is one of Rothenberg's most intimate paintings and the first in which she included two separate figures relating to each other' (Simon, ibid, p. 121). In Grandmother, the two embracing figures are doused in white light which originated from a scene Rothenberg viewed outside her studio window during one summer on Long Island. When Rothenberg saw a neighbor cradling a child in her arms, she was inspired to paint subjects that were concerned with relationships and human interaction. This painting is one of Rothenberg's most sensitive and personal works.