Mezzofist #2

Susan Rothenberg, Mezzofist #2, 1990, mezzotint with hand-coloring on paper, image: 17 ³⁄₄ x 13 ¹⁄₂ in. (45.2 x 34.3 cm) sheet: 24 ¹⁄₄ x 19 ³⁄₈ in. (61.7 x 49.2 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Margrit and Jack Vanderryn, 2007.10.2

Artwork Details

Title: Mezzofist #2
Artist: Susan Rothenberg
Publisher: United Limited Art Editions
Date: 1990
Location: Not on view
Dimensions: image: 17 ³⁄₄ x 13 ¹⁄₂ in. (45.2 x 34.3 cm) sheet: 24 ¹⁄₄ x 19 ³⁄₈ in. (61.7 x 49.2 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Margrit and Jack Vanderryn
Mediums Description: mezzotint with hand-coloring on paper
Classifications: Graphic Arts
Print
Object Number: 2007.10.2
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2007.10.2

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.

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