Judith Rothschild

Rothschild began her career in the mid-1940s as a member of the American Abstract Artists, influenced by artists such as Juan Gris and Piet Mondrian. While her paintings became increasingly figurative from the 1950s on, marked by her interest in landscape and natural forms, she maintained throughout her life a special interest in the technique of collage. The present work is an homage to Gris, whose 1914 collage, The Bottle of Anis del Mono -- which includes a similar pasted label -- had been acquired by Rothschild's parents, collectors Herbert and Nannette Rothschild, in 1956 (now in The Reina Sofía Museum). On her collage, Rothschild spelled out Gris's name with letters cut out from a newspaper. The overall composition also recalls the rigorous geometry typical of Gris's Cubism.