Jo Ann Rothschild
Hope for the Future
01. 11/17/2020, oil on canvas, 24 x 30 inches, $2100.00
02. 10/2/2020, oil on canvas, 10 x 20 inches, $1400.00
03. Imaginary/Real, 1991, mixed media collage, 113 x 92 inches, $18000.00
04. March 20, 2020, mixed media collage, 10.5 x 9.5 inches, $250.00
05. Hey Dad Look 3/29/2020, mixed media collage, 9 x 6.25 inches, $250.00
06. 8/20/2020, mixed media collage, 9.5 x 10.5 inches, $250.00
07. 3/26/2020, mixed media collage, 11.5 x 9 inches, $250.00
08. Happy Anniversary 1988, 2020, mixed media collage, 11 x 8 inches, $250.00
09. White House Census, 2020, mixed media collage, 10.5 x 11 inches, $250.00
10. 4/25/2020, mixed media collage, 4.5 x 5.5 inches, $250.00
11. 4/26/2020, mixed media collage, 15 x 7 inches, $250.00
12. Annie’s Contribution 7/19/2020, mixed media collage, 8.5 x 11 inches, $250.00
13. 6/16/2020, oil on canvas, 24 x 30 inches, $2100.00
14. 10/2/2020, oil on canvas, 10 x 10 inches, $1050.00
15. 9/30/2020, oil on canvas, 10 x 8 inches, $850.00
16. June 11, 2020, oil on canvas, 8 x 10 inches, $850.00
17. June 11, 2020 B, oil on canvas, 10 x 8 inches, $850.00
18. 9/3/2020, oil on canvas, 16 x 20 inches, $1600.00
19. 10/25/2020, oil on canvas, 10 x 8 inches, $850.00
20. 9/20/2020, oil on canvas, 10 x 8 inches, $850.00
21. 9/26/2020, oil on canvas, 8 x 10 inches, $850.00
22. 11/6/2020, oil on canvas, 8 x 10 inches, $850.00
23. Untitled, 2019, oil on canvas, 8 x 10 inches, $850.00
24. 1/1/2021, oil on linen, 8 x 10 inches, $850.00
25. 10/7/2020, oil on canvas, 9 x 12 inches, $1050.00
26. 12/29/2020, oil on canvas, 9 x 12 inches, $1050.00
27. 9/25/2020, oil on canvas, 9 x 12 inches, $1050.00
28. May 14B, 2020, oil on canvas, 9 x 12 inches, $1050.00
29. 10/29/2020, oil on canvas, 16 x 20 inches, $1600.00
30. 5/17/2020, oil on canvas, 8 x 10 inches, $850.00
31. 12/30/2020, oil on canvas, 9 x 12 inches, $1050.00
32. May 14, 2020, oil on canvas, 8 x 10 inches, $850.00
33. May 27, 2020, oil on canvas, 8 x 10 inches, $850.00
34. 1/4/2021, oil on canvas, 24 x 30 inches, $2100.00
35. 9/16/2020, oil on canvas, 8 x 10 inches, $850.00
36. 9/22/2020, oil on canvas, 8 x 10 inches, $850.00
37. 12/11/2020, mixed media collage, 30 x 22.25 inches, $1200.00
38. 12/6/2020, mixed media collage, 30 x 22.25 inches, $1200.00
39. Begun November 22, 2020 After Geri Rachins’ Talk, 2020, mixed media collage, 30 x 22.25 inches, $1200.00
40. 6/4/2020, mixed media collage, 30 x 22.25 inches, $1200.00
41. 12/7/2020, oil on canvas, 10 x 20 inches, $1400.00
42. 10/2/2020, oil on canvas, 10 x 20 inches, $1400.00
43. 8/19/2020, oil on canvas, 24 x 30 inches, $2100.00
44. About the Loss, About the Gain, July 7, 2020, mixed media collage, 30 x 22.25 inches, $1200.00
45. 10/6/2020, oil on canvas, 20 x 16 inches, $1600.00
46. 6/9/2020, mixed media collage, 12 x 9.5 inches, $250.00
47. A, 2020, mixed media collage, 10 x 11 inches, $250.00
48. When Ben Was Seven He Wanted Me to Draw an Elephant 6/25/2020, mixed media collage, 6 x 13.5 inches, $250.00
49. Where Is My Soup Soul, 2020, mixed media collage, 15 x 5 inches, $250.00
50. Superman in Metropolis 4/17/2020, mixed media collage, 7 x 7.5 inches, $250.00
51. 7/4/2020, oil on canvas, 24 x 30 inches, $2100.00
52. Will Truth Overcome Lies? 4/11/2020, mixed media collage, 11 x 7 inches, $250.00
53. Word Chart, 1971, oil on canvas, 11 x 14 inches, NFS
Hope For The Future
Jo Ann Rothschild
March 2021
It’s been a funny year for everyone, easier in some ways for non-teaching artists, because we spend most of our working time alone. Nonetheless, it just sucked.
I had a number of projects and I’m showing them all at HallSpace. (well, not the etchings, but everything else) It’s tough because the work is diverse, there is a lot of it, and I often wish to narrow what I do, to one thing. But I find everything influences and hopefully, nourishes everything else. I spent a lot of time this year working on a book about big unstretched canvases, and though these were made between 1989 and 2006 with many never seen, they occupy an important place in my mind, in my development.
I’m showing one of these, Imaginary/Real, which perhaps appropriately for this year, emphasizes how difficult it can sometimes be to know which is which, and which matters. There are 2 etchings collaged into it: Don’t Go Looking For Trouble, and Trouble Will Find You. There is white lace over a dark ground, a schematic drawing from my first etching, (Deer Rhythms) where I figured out that I cared about the rhythm of Deer Running, rather than their three dimensional form, and a schematic drawing from a 1974 etching, Grave Marks. Partly on the lace, and partly off, are drawings of Guatemalan children sleeping on the street, drawn from a “New York Times Magazine” photo essay, about these abandoned children. The United States of America overthrew the democratically elected president of Guatemala at the behest of United Fruit in 1954 and the social system has only gotten worse, as we see today.
The unstretched canvases instigated a willingness to throw everything into my painting, to mine my own history, to let things happen without preconception. From time to time, ideas, myths, love, panic, anger, and ambition have generated paintings for me, but learning that all you need do, is begin, is the understanding that makes work possible for me. To quote my first teacher, Leo Garel, “We will find out where you are going, after you get there.”
I think of Word Chart, 1971, as my first mature painting. The marks can be seen as sprouts, corners, body parts, sores, intersections or words. I was torn between the verbal and the visual world, and Word Chart may have been an effort to join both. This painting clarified my interest in notation and rhythm. The grid first appears here, and reappears from then on, throughout my work. I use it to locate marks, to establish and disrupt rhythm, to call attention to subtle variations in stroke, density or color.
I worked on the book while I was making this new work, so old methods often informed the new. All of my work invites close attention. But I seem less interested in big statements, than I might have been 30 years ago.
The collages come partly from scarcity: I didn’t have big sheets of paper, canvas or the oil paint I needed. And the collages come partly from abundance: I had watercolors and acrylics, old drawings, a space to work, a pocket copy of “The Constitution” from the ACLU, my son Ben’s writing and drawing from 1988, paintings that he and I had done together, old drawings of mine, and the detritus from this fraught political year.
Though similar in approach to my old drawings and on the same paper (Rives BFK), the new ones are half their size: 22x30 inches, rather than 30x44 inches. My graphic work is often at the mercy of current events and mood, so apprehensions about fascism, as well as postcards encouraging Democratic voters to show up, found their way into the drawings of 2020 and 2021.
The paintings I worked on this year, are small, from 8x10 inches (many of my favorites) to 30x26 inches, which are sometimes more active. It was a year of looking back, and painting forward. Collages and drawings often respond to political climate. Painting about painting – putting one mark in front of the other, and hoping to see what works. I’m not after anything known in these paintings, rather wanting them to teach me something new – something I haven’t seen. Nothing is very dramatic. They are exploratory.