​ROGER ROTHSTEIN

COLLAGE ON GOLD SILK

 

 His new "Silk Collage Series" consists of remarkably convincing pseudo-Asian landscapes of cut paper collaged on gold Yumei Juan silk.  At first we might believe that the artist has glibly usurped the language of another culture, in what is perhaps a morally questionable emulation of a tradition that is not his. Looking more closely, however, we discover, tucked into the scenes, tiny depictions of Western consumerist trash that upset the apparent seamlessness of Rothstein's appropriation.  In Birds with Coke Can (all works 2005), what looks like a beautiful nature study of two birds in a flowering tree disconcertingly includes a soda can.  Rothstein's excursion is not so much to the East as into our culture of waste.  Postmodernist intrusions such as these de-estheticize what would otherwise be a perfect imitation of Asian style.  Once we discover one, we are more readily able to find these half-concealed clues. In Marlboro Lights/Fish among Lotus Leaves (2005), the traditional imagery of a school of fish framed by lotus plants takes up the right-hand side of the composition, while partly hidden beneath a leaf is a discarded cigarette pack. Clearly, Rothstein's investigation is anything but antiquarian in nature.                                

                                                                                                                                                                                                            Jonathan Goodman - Art In America January 2006