Susan Rothenberg: Emotions | Art21 "Extended Play"

Episode #099: Filmed at her home and studio in New Mexico, artist Susan Rothenberg explains how she transforms personal experiences and feelings into works that can become an "emotional moment" for the viewer. While discussing the loss of her dog, Rothenberg describes the process of recovering a memory of her pet through the act of painting.
Susan Rothenberg's early work-large acrylic, figurative paintings-came to prominence in the 1970s New York art world, a time and place almost completely dominated and defined by Minimalist aesthetics and theories. The first body of work for which she became known centered on life-sized images of horses. Glyph-like and iconic, these images are not so much abstracted as pared down to their most essential elements. The horses, along with fragmented body parts (heads, eyes, and hands) are almost totemic, like primitive symbols, and serve as formal elements through which Rothenberg investigated the meaning, mechanics, and essence of painting. Rothenbergs paintings since the 1990s reflect her move from New York to New Mexico, her adoption of oil painting, and her new-found interest in using the memory of observed and experienced events (a riding accident, a near-fatal bee sting, walking the dog, a game of poker or dominoes) as an armature for creating a painting. These scenes excerpted from daily life, whether highlighting an untoward event or a moment of remembrance, come to life through Rothenberg's thickly layered and nervous brushwork. A distinctive characteristic of these paintings is a tilted perspective in which the vantage point is located high above the ground. A common experience in the New Mexico landscape, this unexpected perspective invests the work with an eerily objective psychological edge.
Learn more about the artist at:
art21.org/artist/susan-rothen...
VIDEO | Producer: Wesley Miller & Nick Ravich. Interview: Susan Sollins. Camera: Dyanna Taylor. Sound: Jim Gallup. Editor: Paulo Padilha. Artwork Courtesy: Susan Rothenberg.
#SusanRothenberg #Art21 #Art21ExtendedPlay

[@steveogle3679]

Rip beauty. Her painting always inspired me. To find a way to be human through art. To find my way through the work. Line by line.

[@philippesauvie639]

I stumbled on this interview again this Sunday morning May 24, 2020 and I suddenly got this sense like I wonder if she is still alive. I did a quick search and I found that she had died just four days ago! I saw her paintings for the first time in the 1980s at the old Portland center for the visual arts and I loved the surfaces and painterlyness of them. Over the past 35 years I found myself touching base with her work in reference to my own. Thanks Susan! RIP Susan Rothenberg.

[@mimo98]

What an Artist. A true believer in what Art it's all about. Freedom of figurative expressions without no rules. Truly inspired.

[@beggsorama]

She lives, she breathes, and she owns her work. I don't see how one cannot call her an artist. She left everything to be with her work, which is more than most people can ever say. A true artist, and that's all.

[@eddawodort1013]

jack beggs and she is for sure not the only one , WHO owns her Work ;) otherwise she wouldnt be famos xD

[@sterlingedwards309]

What did she leave to be with her work?

[@kaleighann813]

Love your honesty and style, super cool to be inspired by a beautiful and emotionally deep woman!

[@bceiman1]

RIP Susan Rothenberg

[@JoRiver11]

She was a great painter.

[@Being48]

Love you Susan and your art work. :-)

[@MrSeanMDickinson]

Great stuff. Excellent opening too!

[@walkingnerf4520]

Great interview. Susan has some really nice statements in this.

[@lossennedlorwen]

I don't see where people are getting "large ego" from. She is actively critiquing her own work, pointing out what she thinks is working & what isn't. And if she feels so strongly that she swears- which happens /once/, so people can stop being prudish about it- then she swears. And many people smoke, even though it's not the best decision. I may not be a huge fan of her work, no, but honestly, people, lay off the woman. You sound childish attacking her like this.

[@manuelbranco173]

I agree - people get so silly when it comes to critiquing art because they know little or nothing about it.

[@deborahconnolly8949]

Love her.

[@TheTerminalExpress]

Her paint-handling is very personal

[@eddawodort1013]

TheTerminalExpress it seems to me very clear , concentrated and self-concious ... Why do have especially female artists have to do Something personal ?! XD

[@terrygrund6598]

Remember her at Massachusetts College of Art in Boston. 1968?

[@CorpseTongji]

if i could put my bleeding fucking heart in there i would

[@oldpiq]

Most artists are pretty insecure about their works unless pompous a-holes. If someone points out that my art is a failure, I'm too vulnerable to defend myself, because I already know it is a failure.

[@eddawodort1013]

Peasandoats ?

[@manuelbranco173]

It's funny but she looks like her paintings - I like the horse series

[@antoniosagradolovato305]

Where i can find more videos about she, her work and that? Its really hard to

[@morna45]

Susan Rothenberg is an absolute painting genius. She is a goddess in my world of art, and whether or not she smokes shouldn't influence whether you "like" her art or not. Goodness, grow the F* up, people. Reminds me of Marilyn Monroe's quote: "Nice women don't make history."

[@benblume6623]

What do you like about her work? I looked it up and I found it boring. I don´t feel much when I look at it. But i have to say it was i quick look and just from google. It seemed like, just too simple in a way?

[@rabindrashrestha8230]

More Artistic.

[@coffeeheadduck3773]

I can't exactly remember, but I think she's married to Bruce Nauman.

[@ramonsandoval8352]

#Hampart

[@adelinemalfon1214]

t as le chic pour me faire plaisir

[@bed-of-roses]

Not as conceptual as I would have hoped.

[@stillpaints]

She should try to express the misery of her tobacco addiction.

[@Joshua-yr2zm]

Idiot

[@sterlingedwards309]

Ditto...smoking is bad!

[@quenchedinlife]

I absolutely hate how she speaks about her work, you can see that she has such a large ego, and truly thinks her paintings are genius. But for me she is one of the worst living recognized painters. She is almost as bad as Julian Schnabel.

[@Joshua-yr2zm]

Jealous, much?

[@kaleighann813]

i think not she was being honest and open about how she felt. that one part of the hand is incomplete or that she hasn't "successfully" done portraiture... She deserves, just as you and i do, like everyone to feel confidence within the vulnerability and opportunity to speak about her lifes work. you feel that? it's not worth adding negativity to, she an artist who is comfortable knowing herself, her strengths and weaknesses, thats evident in the video. She's also supposed to talk about herself and the art in a mini doc about her and her art. lol

[@netsaosa4973]

projecting

[@George-ll7ly]

You ‘re lacking a respect that I feel you will never earn with that attitude.

[@guitarsandsuchetc]

She was addicted to cigarettes