Susan Rothenberg
1945–2020
For four decades Susan Rothenberg has depicted animal and human forms in paintings, drawings, and prints that straddle the divide between representation and abstraction. When the young artist began working in the late 1960s, she employed methods and materials associated with Postminimalism, producing process- based works by cutting wire mesh and manipulating lead, and painting geometric abstractions. Dissatisfied with these efforts, she began to ask “if there was anything for [her] to do.” In 1974, while sketching on a canvas scrap, an answer intuitively emerged in the shape of a horse outlined in profile and bifurcated by a vertical line.
Rothenberg went on to depict numerous horses—in side view and frontally, stationary and moving—during the following decade, rendering each composition by squeezing paint onto her brush and mixing colors directly on the canvas. The resulting surface texture does not differentiate between the figure and the ground on which it stands or runs. This technique and the recognizable, straightforward subject allowed Rothenberg to “stick to the philosophy of the day—keeping the painting flat and anti-illusionist,” while simultaneously allowing her to “use this big, soft, heavy, strong, powerful form.”
In For the Light the forward-facing beast fills the canvas vertically and charges toward the viewer. Rothenberg wedges a bonelike shape between its head and the picture plane, halting the animal’s momentum and reinforcing the materiality of the work. Rothenberg would later break her horses into fragments, and even turn to the human figure, yet she maintains the distinctive style forged in early abstractions of the equine form.
Introduction
Susan Charna Rothenberg (January 20, 1945 – May 18, 2020) was an American contemporary painter, printmaker, sculptor, and draughtswoman. She became known as an artist through her iconic images of the horse, which synthesized the opposing forces of abstraction and representation.
Wikidata identifier
Q436782
Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License . Accessed May 10, 2025.
Introduction
Many of Rothenberg's mature works, for which she has become renowned, depict horses.
Country of birth
United States
Roles
Artist, painter, photographer
ULAN identifier
500024727
Names
Susan Rothenberg
Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed May 10, 2025.
