Dorothea Rockburne
Dorothea Rockburne
Lab Grant Resident
“The energy of paper pulp seems to me much more earth-bound, like a tree. I don’t mean that it’s dead—- it’s a very lively thing. But the copper, again, is a very different energy than the paint. Paint permeates the surface or sits on top of it. One of the big challenges in working with some notions of astronomy is to not use perspective, which is an earth-bound thing.
So rather than to think perspectively, I think of how the energy of the paint could influence the liveliness bu earth-boundless of the paper pulp in terms of the much more electric quality of the copper, and also how the shapes would fall back, as it does in this work (pointing) or come forward, as it does in this work—”
—Dorothea Rockburne, excerpt from Interview with Arthur Danto, Lab Grant Publication Series No. 4, Dieu Donné
About the Artist
Dorothea Rockburne (b. 1932, Montreal, Canada) attended Black Mountain College, Ashville, NC (1950-1954) where she studied with Philip Guston, Franz Kline, Cy Twombly, and Robert Rauschenberg among other contemporaries. While at Black Mountain College, the teachings of renowned German mathematician Max Dehn, which often merged the mathematical and natural worlds, made an immense impact on Rockburne’s visual perceptions. After moving to New York in 1954, Rockburne became involved with Judson Dance Theater, participating in numerous performances and actions throughout the early 1960s. By the late 1960’s Rockburne began to synthesize her interests in art and math, likewise linking her experiments with body movement and perception work with varied natural and industrial materials that would define her practice for decades to come.
In the last decade, Rockburne has been the subject of three significant survey exhibitions, including the preeminent Dorothea Rockburne, Dia:Beacon, Beacon, NY (2018-ongoing); Dorothea Rockburne: Drawing Which Makes Itself, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (2013-2014); and In My Mind’s Eye, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY (2011). Additional solo museum exhibitions include A Gift of Knowing: The Art of Dorothea Rockburne, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine (2015); Dorothea Rockburne, Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA (1989); and Dorothea Rockburne: Locus, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (1981), among others.
Rockburne’s work is represented in prominent private and public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada; Auckland City Art Museum, Auckland, New Zealand, Ludwig Museum, Aachen, Germany; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Centre Pompidou, Paris, France, among many others. Rockburne lives and works in New York City. (Source: David Nolan Gallery)
For more information, please visit their website:https://www.dorothearockburne.com