NEW YORK — A significant exhibition celebrating the enduring legacy of artist Susan Rothenberg has opened at the Hauser & Wirth Gallery’s New York headquarters. The show features 14 paintings, including works rarely or never exhibited before, offering a comprehensive look at the artist’s career.
Susan Rothenberg. The Weather
The exhibition, titled Susan Rothenberg. The Weather and curated by Alexis Lowry, runs from September 4 to October 18. It presents a rare, intimate glimpse into Rothenberg’s psyche, showcasing not only her well-known masterpieces but also pieces she kept private for decades. These works reveal the raw emotional depth that characterized her distinctive artistic vision.
Rothenberg, who lived from 1945 to 2020, developed a powerful pictorial language over five decades. Her art broke from minimalist conventions and continuously redefined the painting medium. She became a central figure in the rebirth of painting that began in the mid-1970s, known for a language that was both fierce and sometimes cryptic, embodying resistance and otherness. Her artistic integrity and self-determination served as an inspiration for generations of painters.
The exhibition emphasizes the poignant, personal touch in each canvas, highlighting their tactile immediacy. Rothenberg often described the palpable atmosphere in her paintings, created through vigorous brushstrokes, as “The Weather.” From the bold outlines of her early horse paintings against agitated backgrounds to the fragmented and dissolving bodies in her later works, Rothenberg’s art captured a sense of primordial force and dynamic tension.
Critic Peter Schjeldahl noted the profound impact of her paintings, observing, “The paintings hit higher than the bowels. Their effect is at the same time frenetic and icy, frozen violence that recalls the head a lot, without being intoxicating, because they are composed with firmness and painted with cunning.”
Rothenberg’s unmistakable touch is evident throughout her oeuvre. In Outline (1978), ghostly handprints mark the margins. Red Head (1981) features bold lines, a tribute to the artist’s tools. White (1996-1997), painted after a near-fatal ape puncture, depicts a drift between consciousness and mortality. The swirling bodies in All Night Long (2000-2001) pulse with energy. In Untitled (Green Hands with Band) (2018), painted near the end of her life, grasping hands convey urgency and elegy, embodying the artist’s essence as a subject containing multitudes.
About the Artist
Susan Charna Rothenberg was born in Buffalo, New York, in 1945. After college, she traveled to Greece and Spain and briefly attended the Corcoran School of Art before moving to New York in 1969, where she lived for two decades.
Despite critical acclaim, Rothenberg’s work was the subject of only two major retrospective exhibitions during her lifetime. In 1992, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery hosted Susan Rothenberg: Paintings and Drawings, exploring the relationship between her drawings and paintings. In 2009, the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth presented Susan Rothenberg: Moving in Place, which traced her career from a holistic and formal perspective, highlighting her unique approach to pictorial space beyond her early horse paintings.
Rothenberg’s works are held in numerous public and private collections worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Art, the Tate, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
In conjunction with the exhibition, Hauser & Wirth Publishers is releasing Susan Rothenberg. The Weather, a richly illustrated monograph. This publication details Rothenberg’s career, from her iconic horse paintings of the 1970s to her later works influenced by the New Mexico desert landscape. It includes commentary from writers, artists, and thinkers, along with a comprehensive biography.
