Untitled Composition
Judith Rothschild
JUDITH ROTHSCHILD, 1945. OIL ON CANVAS.
Judith Rothschild’s artistic journey was marked by experimentation and evolution. Gaining success as a young artist in New York in the 1940s, she moved through styles and subjects, informed by the cultural milieu that surrounded her. A part of the group of radical abstract artists known as the Jane Street Artists, she was involved in a proto-abstract expressionism, exploring emotional states through colour and non-figurative form. Yet, Rothschild, rather out of fashion, burned a flame for Cubism and Piet Mondrian especially was her most constant source of inspiration as she matured. She moved away from biomorphic forms and gestural brush work into compositional explorations that brought order and feeling to simple colors and organisations. Throughout her life she collected artworks by those who inspired her and, since her death, has become more known for her post-mortem philanthropy, her estate selling the works she accumulated to support lesser-known artists, of which she considered herself one.