Cock Weather Vane 1935 - 1942

Joseph Rothenberg's "Cock Weather Vane," date unknown, is made with watercolour and graphite. It's not exactly a photorealistic rooster, is it? More like a rooster-ish gesture, which I love. The way Rothenberg approaches the feathers is particularly interesting to me. He doesn't try to copy them; instead, he gives us these beautiful, broad stripes of color, alternating between rusty red and pale grey. It’s like he’s capturing the essence of "feather" rather than the actual thing. I love the simplicity and directness of these marks; they have a real confidence. The whole piece has this fantastic balance between representation and abstraction. It reminds me of some folk art I’ve seen, particularly in the way Rothenberg simplifies the form. It's also a conversation with artists like Marsden Hartley, who similarly found beauty in these simplified forms. Art is like that, isn't it? An ongoing exchange, a remix of ideas that refuses to stand still.