Susan Rothenberg

1945 Buffalo, New York – 2020 Northern New Mexico

BiographyKnown for her glyph-like paintings of animal and human figures rendered in gestural brushstrokes that explore collection and personal memory, Susan Rothenberg was born in Buffalo, New York on January 29, 1945. She received a BFA at Cornell University and later moved to New York to study dance where she began exhibiting her large acrylic, figurative paintings. The first body of work for which Rothenberg became known centered on life-size images of horses that were pared down to their most essential elements. Rothenberg’s paintings since the 1990s reflect her move from New York to New Mexico with her husband Bruce Nauman, her adoption of oil painting, and her interest in depicting specific remembered experiences such as a riding accident, a near-fatal bee sting, walking the dog, or a game of poker. Rothenberg received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Skowhegan Medal for Painting. Her work has been featured in exhibitions at museums including the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Dallas Museum of Art, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Tate Gallery in London. She passed away in May 2020. Today her works are held in collections including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

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