Michael Rothenstein

William Michael RothensteinRA(19 March 1908 – 6 July 1993) was a British printmaker, painter and art teacher.

Early life

Born inHampstead,London, on 19 March 1908, he was the youngest of four children born to the celebrated artist,Sir William Rothensteinand his wifeAlice Knewstub.

Art

He was home schooled and studied art atChelsea Polytechnicand later at theCentral School of Arts and Crafts.Affected by lingering depression, Rothenstein did little art making during the late 1920s and early 1930s. Despite this, he had his first one-man show at theWarren Gallery,London in 1931.

During the late 1930s the artist's output was mainlyNeo-Romanticlandscapes and in 1940 he was commissioned to paint topographical watercolours of endangered sites inSussexfor theRecording Britainproanised by thePilgrim Trust.In the early 1940s he moved toEthel House,in the northEssexvillage ofGreat Bardfield.The artist held his first (of many) one-man shows at the famousRedfern Gallery,London in 1942. During this time he became increasingly fascinated by printmaking.

At Great Bardfield there was a small resident art community that includedJohn Aldridge,Edward BawdenandKenneth Rowntree.In the early 1950s several more artists (includingGeorge Chapman,Stanley Clifford-Smith,Audrey CruddasandMarianne Straub) moved to the village making it one of the most artistically creative spots in Britain. Rothenstein took an important role in organising theGreat Bardfield Artistsexhibitions during the 1950s. Thanks to his contacts in the art world (his older brother,Sir John Rothenstein,was the current head of theTate Gallery) these exhibitions became nationally known and attracted thousands of visitors.

From the mid-1950s Rothenstein almost abandoned painting in preference to printmaking which includedlinocutas well as etchings. Like his fellow Bardfield artists his work was figurative but became near abstract in the 1960s.

Although little known as a painter, Rothenstein became one of the most experimental printmakers in Britain during the 1950s and '60s. He authored several books on art subjects includingLooking at Painting(1947) andFrontiers of Printmaking(1966). In 1965 he was the driving force behind the formation of Printmakers Council and served as its first Chairman. He taught art for many years atCamberwell School of ArtandStoke-on-Trent College of Art,he also lectured extensively in the USA. He illustrated several books including the first UK edition ofJohn Steinbeck'sOf Mice and Men(1937) andAcquainted with the Night: A Book of Dreams(1949) byNancy Price.

Rothenstein was elected an Associate of theRoyal Academy(ARA) in 1977 and a Royal Academician (RA) in 1984. Near the end of his life there was a retrospective of his work at theStoke-on-Trent City Museum and Art Gallery(1989) and important shows followed at theFry Art Gallery,Essex (1991 and 1993).

Legacy

His work is included in several public collections including theTate Gallery(London),Victoria and Albert Museum(London), and the Fry Art Gallery (Saffron Walden).

In 1974, the one-man show 'Violence and the Studio Process' was held inThe Minories, Colchester.

Personal life

In 1936 he married his first wife, the artist, Betty Fitzgerald, who was later known asDuffy Ayers,and the couple had two children. In 1956 he divorced Duffy and in 1958 married Diana Arnold-Forster. Not long after the 1958 Great Bardfield summer exhibition the couple moved to the nearby village ofStisted,Essex. She died in 2017.

References

• Mel Gooding,Michael Rothenstein's Boxes,London: Art Books International, 1992
• John Rothenstein,Time's Thievish Progress,London: Cassell, 1970
• Martin Salisbury, 'The Artists',Artists at the Fry,Cambridge: Ruskin Press, 2003
• Tessa Sidey,The Prints of Michael Rothenstein,1993
• Nicholas Usherwood, "Michael Rotherstein", Oxford:Oxford Dictionary of National Biography,2004
• Pat Gilmour, "Michael Rothenstein's Prints",Print Quarterly,vol. X, n°4, 1993

External links

• 7 artworks by or after Michael Rothensteinat theArt UKsite
• Profile on Royal Academy of Arts Collections