Mezzo Fist #1

Susan Rothenberg, Mezzo Fist #1, 1990, mezzotint and chine colle on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1991.94.4, © 1990, Susan Rothenberg
Copied Susan Rothenberg, Mezzo Fist #1, 1990, mezzotint and chine colle on paper, plate: 19 1219 12 in. (49.549.5 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1991.94.4, © 1990, Susan Rothenberg

Artwork Details

Title
Mezzo Fist #1
Publisher
Universal Limited Art Editions
Date
1990
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
plate: 19 1219 12 in. (49.549.5 cm)
Copyright
© 1990, Susan Rothenberg
Credit Line
Museum purchase
Mediums Description
mezzotint and chine colle on paper
Classifications
Highlights
Keywords
  • Figure — fragment — hand
Object Number
1991.94.4

Artwork Description

Susan Rothenberg's art is distinguished by psychologically charged images, heavily abstracted but still recognizable as living forms. Best known for her early images of horses, she has turned her attention to the expressive qualities of the human form, often suggesting motion through broad, gestural marks. Through simplification of shapes, she achieves an intensity and directness of expression in which enigma and ambiguity take on psychological dimensions. In Mezzo Fist I the subject appears to be a figure hitting its own face with its fist. Her imagery functions metaphorically rather than literally, with themes of violence, menace, confrontation, and sexuality expressed through contrasts of hard and soft, male and female, movement and stasis, solid and void, order and chaos, and figure to ground.

Multiplicity, 2011