With a career spanning more than 60 years, Susan Weil works across various materials and techniques. At the beginning of her career, she often depicted her subjects in scenes which favored the Abstract Expressionist movement. In Bathers, 1958, bright orange figures are placed against a soft blue background. This work distorts the picture plane in a way that hints at a foreshortened horizon, while evoking a deep understanding of abstract painting techniques. Though largely overshadowed by her male contemporaries in the New York art scene in the 1950s, Weil was included in the Frontiers Reimagined exhibition in 2015, a collateral event of the 56th Venice Biennale, and her work is held in major institutions such as The Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and the Moderna Museet, Stockholm.
“Growing up in the 1950s when Abstract Expressionism was blowing all the rules, it gave you a sense of possibility: You didn’t have to be hemmed in by a square. You could really make things move.”
—Susan Weil
Weil’s practice and experimental nature was informed by the artists with whom she associated, yet stood entirely on its own. She attended Black Mountain College and studied under Josef Albers, where she began to investigate different art forms alongside her then lover and future husband, Robert Rauschenberg. It was there that the duo’s collaborative nature first took hold – Weil first introduced Rauschenberg to the technique of making blueprints, which would grow to become important in his practice. This nature of experimentation is what Weil’s works are most celebrated for, and her dynamic and playful works exemplify the spirit of the art world in the 1950s.
A detail of the present work.
Considering multiple perspectives in the present work, the figures are presented as if coming out of a body of water. Each in a different stage of emergence, Weil’s figures are distorted slightly, reflecting a more abstracted view of time, space and movement. Though exhibiting extensively throughout her lifetime, much of her recognition was received later in her life – the artist was awarded the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and the Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in 1976 and 1977, respectively, and her work continues to be exhibited in both solo and group exhibitions worldwide.
Provenance
Sundaram Tagore Gallery, New York Acquired from the above by the present owner
Exhibited
New York, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, The Art of Susan Weil, October 24–November 9, 2005, p. 18 (illustrated)