1980–81
American
Acrylic and vinyl based paint on canvas
Place Made,United States
Overall: 114 × 114 in. (289.56 × 289.56 cm)
85.437

I was searching for an image and all I had to find it with was my head and my hand . . . That’s what a painter is—a hand and a head.

—Susan Rothenberg

Susan Rothenberg’s paintings exemplify a return to representation and personal symbolism in American art that began in the 1970s as a reaction, in part, to the previous generation’s focus on abstract or geometric forms. Rothenberg’s highly simplified images typically resist explanation, but Blue Head emphasizes two essential parts of the painter with an outline of a head overlaying a hand, suggesting the symbiotic nature of concept and craft.

signed on reverse, center: "Susan Rothenberg 1980-81 Head (Blue)"
Gift of the Sydney and Frances Lewis Foundation
Huntington Galleries, Huntington, WV, June 2 - August 18, 1984

Muscarelle Museum, The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA, February 4 - April 14, 1984

Randolph-Macon Woman's College, Lynchburg, VA, November 6 - December 17, 1983

The Sydney and Frances Lewis Foundation Collection, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY, March 25 - May 29, 1983

Susan Rothenberg, Kunsthalle, Basel, Switzerland, October 3 - November 15, 1981; Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, Germany, December 18, 1981 - January 31, 1982; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humblebeck, Denmark, March 13 - June 2, 1982; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, October 14 - November 28, 1982

Susan Rothenberg: Five Heads, Willard Gallery, New York, NY, April 11 - May 16, 1981
(Willard Gallery, New York) by 1981; Purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Sydney and Francis Lewis, Virginia, in 1981; [1] Gift to Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA), Richmond, Virginia in October 1985.

[1] Sydney and Frances Lewis purchased the work from Willard Gallery during the exhibition “Susan Rothenberg: Five Heads," on view April 11 - May 16, 1981.
©artist or artist’s estate

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