Untitled Possibly 1946

This small ‘Untitled’ painting was made with paint on board by Judith Rothschild, sometime around 1946. It’s a puzzle isn’t it, these layered shapes? I can see Rothschild, carefully mixing her colours. The black outlines give a stained glass effect, like she’s building up space in the gaps between forms. The subdued palette of greens and greys is punctuated by flashes of canary yellow, crimson, and gold. I think she’s having a dialogue with the cubists, and other painters like Mondrian, but also doing something completely her own. I like to imagine her grappling with the arrangement of shapes on the canvas, pushing and pulling them until they lock into place and create a dynamic tension. The more I look, the more I can feel the artist’s hand in the process – trying, failing, and then succeeding. Ultimately, all artists are in an ongoing conversation, building on each other’s ideas and inspiring new forms of expression, opening up new ways of seeing, thinking, and experiencing the world.