Susan Rothenberg: Moving in Place

In the fall of 2009, and in conjunction with the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth will present a special exhibition of some 25 paintings by Susan Rothenberg. The exhibition is organized by the Museum’s Chief Curator, Michael Auping, who has known the artist for over three decades. He and Rothenberg have identified a select group of paintings—from the early horse paintings of the mid-1970s, to her most recent body of work, which explores a number of central motifs that have occurred throughout her 35-year career. A retrospective volume of Susan Rothenberg's work, this book addresses the artists entire career to date, focusing on her unique methods and themes. Full-colour illustrations and foldouts of Rothenberg's best known early works as well as exciting new paintings afford readers the chance to observe the evolution of Rothenberg's themes. From her earliest horse paintings through her spinning figures of the 1980s and early 1990s to her most recent series of paintings of dismembered puppets, this book highlights key compositional strategies in Rothenberg's work. Michael Auping contributes an essay addressing Rothenberg's painting process and the eclectic influences that have helped shape her figurative and spatial distortions. Barbara Buhler Lynes addresses Rothenberg's work in the context of Santa Fe and the tradition of twentieth-century women artists it has inspired, from Mable Dodge Luhan to Georgia O'Keeffe to Agnes Martin.