Date of Birth: March 19, 1908, † July 6 1993
Place: London, UK
Profession: Artist/Printmaker
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Michael Rothenstein was primarily known as a painter of both figurative and abstract subjects in oils, watercolours, collage and mixed media. He also made assemblages, was a printmaker and writer on art. Born the younger son of William Rothenstein in 1908 (painter draughtsman and lithographer, and distinguished Principal of the Royal College of Art), he studied at Chelsea School of Art in 1923, and at the Central School 1924-27, under Meninsky and Hartrick.
After an early career as a landscape watercolourist, Rothenstein embarked upon his newly chosen pathway as a printmaker an to which he dedicated his art thereafter.he experimented with lithography, monotypes, etching, linocut, woodcut, screen prints and various mixed media for the rest of his days. Beginning printmaking at 40, he was a late developer who revolutionised the process. As a teacher, a capacity in which he travelled the world, he shared his discoveries with students from Rome to Voss, from Camberwell to Wisconsin. He always saw printmaking as an open study capable of eroding the boundaries between one studio and another and blowing away the 'stuffy special atmosphere'. For those who did not have the fortune to encounter him directly in this role, his lucid books contionue to provide an alternative opportunity for learning. In 1957 he worked with the noted surrealist printer Stanley Hayter at Atelier 17, on the rue Campagne-Première which he had moved to in 1933, a pivotal moment in Rothenstein's career as hayter was to become his mentor.
Michael Rothenstein held his first full solo exhibition at the Warren Gallery in 1930 and thereafter showed regularly in London galleries (including Angela Flowers), as well as in the the country as a whole and abroad in Europe and beyond. He worked for the prestigous wartime Recording Britain scheme during 1940-43.
He was greatly influenced by Stanley Hayter and in the 1960s produced many mixed media prints using abstract symbols. His direct, dramatic painting in powerful colour, ranged from the intense depiction of everyday scenes to the portrayal and use of certain 'symbolic' images such as the cockerel.
Rothenstein was always enormously prolific throughout his career, particularly once dedicating himself to printing, throughout which his vision and restless energy enabled him to extend the boundaries of printmaking. He earnt a worldwide reputation as one of the most exciting British printmakers of the twentieth century. The fact that Rothenstein chose to make printmaking his primary artistic activity made him quite separate from many other UK artists of the time, were bizarrely print was often seen as something of a poor relation.
From the early 1960s, Rothenstein himself became a major influence in both Britain and the United States. He was an active lecturer and important writer, producing such standard texts as Linocuts and Woodcuts (1962), Frontiers of Printmaking: A New Age of Relief Printing (1966) and Relief Printing, (1970). In 1965, he helped found the Printmakers Council of Great Britain as a radical alternative to the RE, and acted as its chairman for three years. From 1971, he taught at Camberwell School of Art and Hornsey College of Art. During the 1970s, his work began to be given much greater exposure, through international solo shows and retrospectives; these included exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (1974) and the Flowers Gallery (from 1984), and in Bradford (1972), Norway (1972, 1980), Montreal (1971, 1974) and Ottawa (1978). He was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1977, a full academician six years later, and an Honorary RE in 1985. Late in his career, he returned to painting and more basic forms of printmaking.
A retrospective exhibition, Was held at the Hanley City Museum and Art Gallery in Stoke on Trent during 1989. His work is represented in numerous public collections, including the British Museum, the Tate Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Fry Art Gallery (Safforn Walden), the Museum of Modern Art (New York) and the New York Public Library.
Michael Rothenstein died at Stisted, Essex, on 6 July 1993
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