Then and Now
Many viewers who have followed Susan Rosenberg’s work over three previous solo exhibitions at the Millinery Works will note a marked move towards abstraction in her new paintings – entitled “Then and Now”.
On one level, restless move and change seems to be a feature of her work over the past twenty years, with her prodigious output encompassing the human figure, reinterpretations of still lives, and a regular return to references to fragments of nature. But look behind the change, and there are a number of constant elements running through Susan’s work, which provide a strong core of continuity.
First, is her extraordinary sense of colour. Her current large canvasses, exploding with sumptuous and luminous paint, are a wonderful example of her consistent ability to combine colours in a powerful and direct manner, while still retaining a light, fragile and subtle touch. Susan’s use of colour ties in closely with a deep and constant drive to play with senses of space. All of her recent work, even when based on the most naturalistic themes and symbols (the human body!) has created a strongly ambiguous space, evoking the highly inner landscape of mind, memory and imagination. The translucent space she consistently conjures feels deep and broad, but also fragile and unpredictable.
Throughout her career, Susan has retained a strong belief in the importance of technique, and an understanding of the history of the artist’s craft and skill. Trained as both a painter and a printmaker in South Africa and the USA, she has always continually learned and mastered new technical challenges. Viewers of recent exhibitions will remember her groundbreaking incorporation of digital body scanning technology, but, going back a little further, her work has included an even broader range of new techniques, covering everything from Japanese calligraphy, chine colle printing, ceramics and papermaking. More importantly, Susan has consistently managed to enable the particular technical implementation to complement and interpret, rather than overpower, the colour, light and space of her work.
The final consistent theme of Susan’s work, which underpins the other three already mentioned, is its embrace of tension and balance. As an immigrant to the UK from South Africa, who has also spent time in California, she has been forced to balance her strong inner artistic imagination with, on the one hand, the powerful memories of the luxuriant vegetation and bright sun of her youth, and, on the other, her observation of the stark landscape and pearly grey light of London winters. But this exploration of tension and conflict goes further. How do you depict violent energy in still life studies? Can you transpose the fluid and luminous feel of small scale watercolours into large paintings? Can you use a drill to pierce holes in paper while still creating a beautiful image? Can you pull together all the threads of past and present experience, to find a moment of poise and balance?
The paintings of Then and Now are an attempt to explore conflict in formal terms, while drawing together threads and memories of the past and of past work. The paintings feel light and airy but any false note or alien brushstroke would upset the fine balance. Technically and visually there is no room for error, and this adds tension to the works, the tension of reconciling the differences of past and present.
The Millinery Works Gallery. 2006