Susan Rothenberg, Trailblazing Painter with a Taste for the Understated and Indefinable, Is Dead at 75

Susan Rothenberg, a painter who bravely helped usher in an influential return to figuration at a time when it was unfashionable, has died at 75. A spokesperson for New York’s Sperone Westwater gallery, which has long represented Rothenberg, confirmed her death. A cause of death was not immediately provided.
Rothenberg’s paintings are spare and stark—frequently understated in their color palette and simple in their form. But through even the vague suggestion of figures, Rothenbe