American artist Susan Rothenberg is known for her nearly abstract, glyph-like paintings and drawings of horses. “I had been doing abstract paintings, using a central dividing line so as to keep the painting on the surface and call attention to the canvas,” Rothenberg explained in 1976. “The horse was just something that happened on both sides of my line.” Just as compelling are her prints, which in addition to focusing on the equine, display the artist’s interest in depicting and dissecting the human figure. Rothenberg plunged into printmaking during the late 1970s, and within the ensuing years generated numerous editions of etchings, lithographs, mezzotints, and woodcuts. As she became familiar with the technique, Rothenberg began to take personal approaches to creating her prints. This included coloring individual sheets by hand – creating unique works that stand apart from one another within the same edition – or drawing onto lithography stones with sticks of grease-soaked charcoal, in order to create an expressionist composition.

DMAC News, Oct Nov Dec 2019