SECOND FLOOR GALLERIES

Susan Rothenberg, Wishbone, 1979. Acrylic and flashe on canvas. Anderson Collection at Stanford University, Gift of Sean Scully, 2024.1

The powerful work of celebrated artist Susan Rothenberg is brought into focus in a dedicated gallery alongside an accompanying photographic portrait by Leo Holub.

About the Artist

Susan Rothenberg (1945–2020) was a trailblazing painter whose bold canvases reintroduced the figure into contemporary art at a time when abstraction dominated. Rising to prominence in the mid-1970s with her iconic horse-centered paintings, she forged a distinctive style that merged gestural brushwork, symbolic imagery, and psychological intensity. Over five decades, Rothenberg expanded her vocabulary to include fragments of the human body, animals, and everyday forms, always maintaining a raw immediacy that bridged abstraction and representation. Born in Buffalo, New York, she studied at Cornell University before moving to New York City, where her early exhibitions helped redefine painting for a new generation. Her work has been the subject of major retrospectives at institutions such as the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and the Whitney Museum of American Art, securing her place as one of the most influential painters of her era.