Susan Rothenberg facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Susan Rothenberg
Born	Susan Charna Rothenberg (1945-01-20)January 20, 1945 Buffalo, New York, U.S.
Died	May 18, 2020 (aged 75) Galisteo, New Mexico, U.S.
Education	Cornell University
Known for	Contemporary art
Spouse(s)	George Trakas ​ ​ (m. 1971; div. 1979)​ Bruce Nauman ​ (m. 1989)​
Awards	Rolf Schock Prizes in Visual Arts (2003)

Susan Charna Rothenberg (January 20, 1945 – May 18, 2020) was an American artist. She was known for her paintings, prints, and sculptures. Susan became famous for her unique horse paintings. These artworks blended two different styles: abstract art (which uses shapes and colors) and realistic art (which shows things as they look).

Growing Up and Learning About Art

Susan Rothenberg was born in Buffalo, New York, on January 20, 1945. Her mother, Adele, was a leader at the Buffalo Red Cross. Her father, Leonard, owned a chain of supermarkets.

In 1965, Susan finished her studies at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. She earned a special degree in Fine Arts. Later, in 1967, she went to Washington, D.C.. There, she continued to study art at George Washington University and the Corcoran Museum School.

In 1969, Susan moved to New York City. She joined a group of artists who were very dedicated to their work. In the early 1970s, she started to become well-known in the art world. She created large paintings using acrylic paints. These paintings often showed life-sized horses and mostly used one color.

Susan Rothenberg's Art Career

Untitled (Horse) 1976

Susan Rothenberg had her first art show by herself in New York in 1975. It was at the 112 Greene Street Gallery. This show featured three big paintings of horses. People praised her work because it added images to a style called Minimalism. Minimalism usually uses very simple shapes and colors. Susan also brought a new feeling to figurative art, which is art that shows real objects or people.

One art critic, Peter Schjeldahl, called her show "a eureka." This means it was a moment of great discovery. He said the large size of her paintings showed her ambition. He also found it amazing that her art referred to something real.

From the mid-1970s, Susan Rothenberg was seen as one of the most creative artists of her time. Many artists in New York were focused on Minimalism. But Susan stood out because she brought back emotion and recognizable figures into her art. Her horse paintings from the 1970s had some simple, repeated patterns like Minimalism. However, her energetic way of painting the horses mixed in ideas from older styles. These included abstract expressionism and color field painting, which focus on feelings and large areas of color.

By the early 1980s, Susan started painting separate heads and body parts. By the end of that decade, her art became more complex. She used many colors and showed lots of movement in her symbolic paintings.

New Mexico Influence on Art

Susan moved to a ranch near Galisteo, New Mexico. After this move, her paintings began to show life in the Southwestern United States. They became filled with bright colors. Starting in the 1990s, she used her memories of real events as ideas for her art. These included a riding accident or a bee sting. She also started using oil paint more often.

Like her earlier works, these paintings had thick layers of paint and energetic brushstrokes. They showed her interest in how images and the painting's surface work together.

In 2010, art critic David Belcher from The New York Times said that people often compared Susan Rothenberg to another famous artist, Georgia O'Keeffe. Both artists found inspiration in the New Mexico landscape. Susan was always influenced by her surroundings, from her early days in SoHo, Manhattan to the New Mexico desert.

Besides her horse paintings, Susan painted many other things. These included dancing figures, heads, bodies, animals, and landscapes. Her powerful paintings kept changing. She explored the line between showing real figures and abstract art. Her work also looked at how color and light are used. She also explored how her personal experiences could be shown on a painted surface.

However, Susan Rothenberg herself disagreed with being compared to O'Keeffe. She said they were "completely different people" with different artistic energies. Even though both found ideas in New Mexico, Susan's paintings had a much more intense feeling.

Later Art Contributions

Susan Rothenberg is best known as a painter. But she also made very important contributions to drawing. In 2004, she had an exhibition of her drawings. Art expert Robert Storr wrote that drawing for Susan was about showing the main qualities of things. It was about capturing their true nature without losing it.

Art Shows and Exhibitions

Susan Rothenberg's art has been shown in many solo exhibitions. These took place across the United States and in other countries. Her first big art survey started at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. It then traveled to other places like the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Tate Gallery in London (1983–1985).

More recent shows of her work include a look back at her art. This was put together by the Albright–Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York (1992–1994). It traveled to Washington, D.C., St. Louis, Chicago, and Seattle. She also had a show at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey in Monterrey, Mexico (1996). A collection of her prints and drawings was shown at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University (1998). Her paintings from the 1990s were shown at The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (1999).

Her painting "Butterfly" from 1976 was displayed in the Treaty Room of the White House. This happened during the time of the Obama Administration.

Susan Rothenberg's work was also part of the "Women Painting Women" exhibition in 2022. This show was held at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.

Awards and Recognition

Susan Rothenberg received several important awards. These include:

• The National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship Grant (1979)
• The Cornell University Alumni Award (1998)
• The Skowhegan Medal for Painting (1998)
• Sweden's Rolf Schock Prize (2003)

Personal Life and Passing

Susan Rothenberg was married to sculptor George Trakas from 1971 to 1979. They had a daughter named Maggie, who was born in 1972. In 1989, Susan married artist Bruce Nauman. Her marriage to Nauman, who was also a well-known artist, led to more comparisons with Georgia O'Keeffe. This was because O'Keeffe also had a famous relationship with photographer Alfred Stieglitz.

Susan Rothenberg passed away at her home in Galisteo, New Mexico, on May 18, 2020. She was 75 years old.

Museum Exhibitions

• 1976, The Sable-Castelli Gallery, Toronto. Susan Rothenberg, April 10–24, 1976.
• 1976, Willard Gallery, New York. Susan Rothenberg, April, 10-May 8, 1976.
• 1977, Willard Gallery, New York. Susan Rothenberg, April 2 – May 5, 1977.
• 1978, University Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley, Susan Rothenberg, Matrix/Berkeley 3, January 20 – April 20, 1978.
• 1978 "Susan Rothenberg, Recent Work," Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 20 May – July 2.
• 1978, Greenberg Gallery, St. Louis. Susan Rothenberg, May 1 – June 30, 1978.
• 1979, Willard Gallery, New York. Susan Rothenberg, March 24 – April 19, 1979.
• 1980, Mayor Gallery, London. Susan Rothenberg: Recent Paintings, February 12 – March 15, 1980. Traveled to Galerie Rudolf Zwirner, Cologne, April 25 – May 24, 1980.
• 1981, Willard Gallery, New York. Susan Rothenberg: Five Heads, April 11 – May 16, 1981.
• 1981–1982 “Susan Rothenberg,” Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland, October 3 – November 15; Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, December 7 – January 31; Louisiana Museum, Humlebaek, Denmark, March 13 – 2 May; “Susan Rothenberg,” Akron Art Museum, Ohio, November 21 – January 10.
• 1982 “Susan Rothenberg: Recent Paintings,” Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, October 14 – November 29.
• 1983, Willard Gallery, New York. Susan Rothenberg, March 19 – April 23, 1983.
• 1983–1985 “Susan Rothenberg,” Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California, September 1 – October 16; San Francisco Museum of Art, California, November 10 – December 25; Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, January 18 – March 18, 1984; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, April 10 – June 3; Aspen Center for the Visual Arts, Colorado, July 1 – August 19; Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan, September 9 – October 21; Tate Gallery, London, November 21 – January 20, 1985; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, February 26 – March 27; “Currents,” ICA, Boston, April.
• 1984, Barbara Krakow Gallery, Boston, Susan Rothenberg Prints: 1977-1984, March 10–29, 1984. Traveled to Davison Art Gallery, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, October 31 – December 5, 1984.
• 1984, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. Currents: Susan Rothenberg, April 1984.
• 1985 “Centric 13: Susan Rothenberg—Works on Paper,” University Art Museum, California State Center, Long Beach, March 12 – April 21; Des Moines Art Center, Iowa, June 21 – July 28; “Susan Rothenberg, Prints,” Des Moines Art Center, Iowa, September – October.
• 1987, Larry Gagosian Gallery, New York. Susan Rothenberg: The Horse Paintings: 1974-1980, January 15 – February 28, 1987.
• 1987, Sperone Westwater, New York. Susan Rothenberg, October 17 – November 14, 1987.
• 1987-1988, The University of Iowa Museum, Iowa City. Heads, Hands, Horses: Susan Rothenberg Prints, November 21, 1987 - January 3, 1988.
• 1988 “Drawing Now: Susan Rothenberg,” Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland, February 23 – April 4.
• 1988 Galerie Gian Enzo Sperone, Rome, June - July 1988.
• 1990 “Susan Rothenberg,” Rooseum Center for Contemporary Art, Malmo, Sweden, June 30 – August 17, 1990.
• 1992–94 "Susan Rothenberg, Paintings and Drawings, 1974–1992," Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, November 14, 1992 – January 3 *1993; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., February 10 – May 9, 1993: The Saint Louis Art Museum, Saint Louis, MO., 27 May – July 25, 1993; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, August 20 – October 24, 1993; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA., November 17 – January 9, 1994; The Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX, January 30 – March 27, 1994.
• 1995 "Focus Series," Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA, February 18 – July 2.
• 1996–97 "Susan Rothenberg," MARCO, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico, October 4, 1996 – January 19, 1997.
• 1998–99 "Susan Rothenberg: Drawings and Prints," Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, August 22 – October 25; The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, HI, January 15 – March 14; Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM, March 21 – 24 May.
• 1999–2000 "Susan Rothenberg: Paintings from the 90's," Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MFA, November 18, 1999 – January 17, 2000.
• 2009–2010 "Susan Rothenberg: Moving In Place," Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX, October 18, 2009 – January 3, 2010.
• 2016 "Susan Rothenberg," Sperone Westwater, New York, NY, November 4 – December 20, 2016.