Susan Rothenberg first gained critical attention in the mid-seventies when she introduced the simple, outlined image of an animal onto the austere canvas of Minimalism. Since then, her exploration of the formal tenets of painting has been manifested through increasingly complex compositions, rendered in a recognizably gestural style. This combination has in part allowed for the consistent interpretation of the artist's work as being both emotionally intense and a serious contribution to the tradition of heroic painting.
Since moving to the Southwest from New York City a decade ago, Rothenberg has created a body of work that is at once a continuation and evolution of previous concerns, and an expression of dramatic changes. "Susan Rothenberg: Paintings from the Nineties," published on the occasion of a major exhibit of the artist's works from the past decade, brings together twenty of her most significant recent paintings. As these works have never been shown before as a group, this book provides the first opportunity to consider a crucial period in the career of one of our most important contemporary artists. Along with Rothenberg's haunting, evocative images, reproduced in full color, the volume includes an important critical introduction by Cheryl Brutvan, Beal Curator of Contemporary Art at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and a poetic response to the artist's paintings by Robert Creeley.