Blue Gingham #3
Artist:
Susie Rosmarin
(American, born 1950)
Date: 1999
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions:
60 × 50 in. (152.4 × 127 cm)
Credit Line: San Antonio Museum of Art, gift of The Sheerin Family in Honor of the Artist
Object number: 2019.24.8
Copyright: © Susie Rosmarin
Label Text
“What you see up close is very different from what you get farther back. The attempt to reconcile those two very disparate realities catapulted me to this complete other space.”
—Susie Rosmarin
For her unique explorations of the psychological and experiential potential of color and light, Susie Rosmarin draws on a wide range of surprisingly mundane sources and systems—from a simple number game she discovered as a teenager (No. 49) to television static (Static Series) to everyday fabrics (Blue Gingham No. 3)—which are all rooted in grid formations. Although her paintings bear the precision of computer-generated images, Rosmarin’s patterned canvases are meticulously executed by hand, creating a subtle tension between control and chance, deliberateness and spontaneity. She began the Line and Number series in the 1980s based on a number game she discovered as a teenager. Starting with a nine-part grid, numbered like a keypad, shapes and patterns emerged as she combined the numbers in a multitude of ways, always reaching the same sum. The crisp, repeating lines and triangles, which seem to be playfully knocking against each other, signify the connections between numbers, or sections of the grid, tracing Rosmarin’s path. Reminiscent of the extraordinary Op Art paintings of Bridget Riley (English, born 1931), the sensation of movement in Rosmarin’s juxtaposing colors and lines creates an event beyond the painting that is psychological and physical. Through her complex process of repeatedly taping and layering pigment, color and light in Rosmarin’s work is both energizing and meditative.
(Suzanne Weaver, 2020)
—Susie Rosmarin
For her unique explorations of the psychological and experiential potential of color and light, Susie Rosmarin draws on a wide range of surprisingly mundane sources and systems—from a simple number game she discovered as a teenager (No. 49) to television static (Static Series) to everyday fabrics (Blue Gingham No. 3)—which are all rooted in grid formations. Although her paintings bear the precision of computer-generated images, Rosmarin’s patterned canvases are meticulously executed by hand, creating a subtle tension between control and chance, deliberateness and spontaneity. She began the Line and Number series in the 1980s based on a number game she discovered as a teenager. Starting with a nine-part grid, numbered like a keypad, shapes and patterns emerged as she combined the numbers in a multitude of ways, always reaching the same sum. The crisp, repeating lines and triangles, which seem to be playfully knocking against each other, signify the connections between numbers, or sections of the grid, tracing Rosmarin’s path. Reminiscent of the extraordinary Op Art paintings of Bridget Riley (English, born 1931), the sensation of movement in Rosmarin’s juxtaposing colors and lines creates an event beyond the painting that is psychological and physical. Through her complex process of repeatedly taping and layering pigment, color and light in Rosmarin’s work is both energizing and meditative.
(Suzanne Weaver, 2020)
Not on view
The San Antonio Museum of Art is in the process of digitizing its permanent collection. This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect SAMA's complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of such records is ongoing.
This resource has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the Human Endeavor.
