SUSAN ROTHENBERG (1945-2020)
SUSAN ROTHENBERG (1945-2020)
SUSAN ROTHENBERG (1945-2020)
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SUSAN ROTHENBERG (1945-2020)
4 More
SUSAN ROTHENBERG (1945-2020)

United States II

Details
SUSAN ROTHENBERG (1945-2020)
United States II
acrylic and tempera on canvas
75 ½ x 90 in. (191.8 x 228.6 cm.)
Painted in 1976.
Provenance
Willard Gallery, New York
Edward R. Broida Trust, New York
Sperone Westwater, New York
Acquired from the above by the present owner, 1995
Literature
“Susan Rothenberg,” Bijutsu Techo, vol. 40, no. 600, October 1988, p. 118 (illustrated).
M. Stevens, “Essential Hesitations,” Parkett, no. 43, 1995, p. 87 (illustrated).
E. Planca, “Susan Rothenberg, la donna che sussurrava ai Cavalla dell’inconscio,” Arte, no. 278, October 1996, p. 109 (illustrated).
Exhibited
New York, Gagosian, Susan Rothenberg: The Horse Paintings: 1974-1980, January-February 1987, pp. 6-7 (illustrated).
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey, Pinturas de Susan Rothenberg, October 1996-January 1997, pp. 126-127 and 210, no. 8.
Kunstmuseum Schloss Derneburg, Hall Art Foundation, Susan Rothenberg, September 2021-October 2022, pp. 16-17 and 19.

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Emily Kaplan
Emily Kaplan Senior Vice President, Senior Specialist, Co-Head of 20th Century Evening Sale

Lot Essay

“The horse was a way of not doing people, yet it was a symbol of people, a self-portrait really” - Susan Rothenberg

Susan Rothenberg’s epic paintings, such as United States II, sent shockwaves through the art world when they were first exhibited in the mid-1970s. Their defiantly brushy surfaces were at odds with the industrial nature of Minimalism and the intellectual rigor of Conceptual Art that were prevalent at the time. The present work was painted the year after the artist burst onto the New York art scene with a transformative show showcasing her emotionally charged paintings of horses set against a bifurcated ground, an exhibition which the legendary critic Peter Schjeldahl described as one of the few “eureka” moments of his career.

Measuring over six feet tall and seven feet wide, this monumental canvas exhibits the majestic silhouette of a horse. This bold motif has become Rothenberg’s signature device in addition to the familiar equine form, she splits the picture plane into two halves, with the left-hand segment manifesting the outline of the horse surrounded by a corona of brilliant while pigment, while in the right hand portion, Rothenberg repeats the process but this time using expressive black brushwork against a white ground. Although the animal is the most recognizable element, its representation is not the sole purpose of the painting, instead the depiction acts a device for undermining the prevailing conventions of painting as the artist developed new forms of abstraction. As the critic John Yau has noted: “By representing an evocative, recognizable image within the conventions of figure/ground abstraction, [Rothenberg’s paintings] can be said to follow in the footsteps of Jasper Johns’s ‘flag’ paintings. In their awkwardness and use of roughly painted geometric divisions, they can be said to acknowledge the achievement of Abstract Expressionists. In their coolness, austerity, and monochromatic tonalities, they recall Minimalism.” (John Yau, “Susan Rothenberg,” Artforum, vol. 25, no. 8, April 1987, p. 123).

Rothenberg first developed her horse motif almost by accident, stating, “I had been doing abstract paintings, using a central dividing line so as to keep the painting on the surface and call attention to the canvas. But I wasn't satisfied with what I was doing. So one dull afternoon two and a half years ago, I doodled the image of a horse. It divided perfectly. Maybe there was some unconscious reason, but horses don't mean anything special to me. I rode them at camp, but that's about it. The horse was just something that happened to both sides of my line. The image held the space and the line kept the picture flat" (S. Rothenberg, quoted in New York, 3 May 1976, reprinted in Susan Rothenberg: MATRIX/BERKELEY 3, exh. cat., University Art Museum, University of California Berkeley, 1978, n.p.).

First exhibited in 1974, in her premier New York solo show, the horse motif would become a transformational one for the artist. In Artforum in 1993, Peter Schjeldahl reminisced on the impact that the show had had on him nearly two decades earlier, writing “The show was a eureka…Painting had been dead lately, burnt to a crisp by the phenomenological stare…An unsuspected reset button had been pushed. New game” (P. Schjeldahl, “Susan Rothenberg’s United States,” Artforum, September 1993, p. 147). One of the three works from that exhibition, United States (1975), was subsequently acquired by the Tate in London.

Painting had been declared dead, yet the artist developed her own unique blend of abstraction and figuration. "By the middle of the '70s," Rothenberg has said, "I sensed that people were tired of Minimal and Conceptual art. It made sense to paint an image of something you could recognize and feel something about" (S. Rothenberg, quoted in MoMA Highlights, New York, 2005, p. 290). She also recalled, “The horse was a way of not doing people, yet it was a symbol of people, a self-portrait really” (S. Rothenberg, New York Times Magazine, July 22nd, 1984). After decades of fascination with this singular image, Rothenberg came to accept that the horse has grown into much more than just an instrument for her abstraction. Imbued with her own self-image, it chronicled her career in New York during the 1970s and ‘80s and served as an important catalyst into the artists contemporary explorations.

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