Blue Head (Primary Title)
Susan Rothenberg, American, 1945 - 2020 (Artist)
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.
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
[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.
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