SUSAN ROTHENBERG (1945–2020) Michael Auping “The truth is,” she later told me, “I did think the horse was an interesting shape, but mostly I used it to hang paint on. . . . I always felt that I was learning how to paint, how to make a special brushstroke that was mine, and that could create an atmosphere the images could move in. Atmosphere is better than pure flatness. Then, all of a sudden, everyone wanted me to only paint horses. I didn’t want to be the ‘horse painter,’ so I broke the horse up into parts. That was more important for me because it forced me to develop my imagery. All the images after that are pure me, and how I experience the world.” While I didn’t understand it at the time, I later realized that smart artists don’t cash in on brand images. They keep moving, regardless of whether it confuses their audience. They go deeper into their art, discovering themselves as they go." "I always thought of that image as a metaphor for how Susan moved through the world and her mind, picking up sensations from both. In one of our last interviews, in 2011, she said: “Let me put it this way. I’m not trying to be intellectual or calculated about what I paint. I paint what is happening around me, and I want people not just to see it happening but to feel how I saw it, if that makes any sense.” I so enjoyed those conversations in the studio, talking about life and painting, and trying to figure out how they come together"