I don’t want this blog to be fielding a constant stream of obituaries, but I was sad to learn of the passing of Susan Rothenberg, an artist who’s been a great inspiration to me.
Born in 1945 in Buffalo, New York, Susan Rothenberg was a pioneer, in that her figurative paintings of the ‘70s were in direct opposition to the Minimalist abstract art that was in vogue in the New York art world at the time.
The paintings she mostly became known for were those featuring horses. Rothenberg depicted equine forms in a pared down style, against monochrome, vacant backgrounds. Sometimes, the horses were bisected; at others, they were contained within uneven geometrical forms. They usually appear alone, or in pairs. “The horse was a way of not doing people, yet it was a symbol of people, a self-portrait, really,” Rothenberg once said.
After the horses, Rothenberg moved on to painting disembodied heads and hands, and various objects.
At times, the images border on the surrealist, such as her improbable 1985 portrait of Piet Mondrian dancing in diffuse golden light, below.
In 1989, Rothenberg married conceptual artist Bruce Nauman and moved with him to a 750-acre ranch in Galisteo, New Mexico, near where Georgia O’Keeffe and Agnes Martin also lived and worked. They spent a lot of time in non-art-related activities, like horseback riding, walking the dogs, feeding the chickens, and were refreshingly uninterested in what was going on in the art world.
Rothemberg, in her own words: “I just don’t think there’s much stuff going on of the kind that I’m interested in, which is really just about painting. It’s not about issues, it’s not about politics, it’s not about process, it’s not about technology. I’m just a painter.”
Her recent work featured subjects including the inside of her studio and the natural surroundings by her home, using “dirtied-down” colors and thick, gestural painted surfaces to reflect the topography of the region.
Here’s a short video for those interested.
Letters from Athens 
The horses are beautiful. They remind me of the cave paintings of horses.
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Yes, you’re right!
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Hi Marina,
Hope you are well and staying safe. I like these paintings very much. Ilona and I send you love always. Ilona and Franklin
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So sorry to hear of her passing. Thank you for posting. Stay safe.
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really good drawings
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I liked her portrait of Piet Modrian. She’s a skillful painter.
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Yes, it’s got a lot of movement and atmosphere
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The moonlight one is fascinating. I’m not so taken with the horses.
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I like them all!
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Fascinating paintings. I like that she was totally disinterested in what was going on in the art world and just painted.
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Yes, did you watch the video? They had a cosy life. Pity she died so young.
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Sad news, but she left behind some sensational work.
Horses seem to me to be so hard to capture, and getting that ‘spirit’ of a horse is something special.
Best wishes, Pete.
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I love her horses! We have wild mustangs here and a neighbor of mine has taken to painting wild mustangs on the red rocks in the same style as Susan Rothenberg’s. I just love walking past my neighbor’s house and seeing them lined up along her yard.
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Did you ever,post photos of them? I must have missed them…
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