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G.H.ROTHE

G.H. ROTHE - MASTER OF THE MEZZOTINT - Biography

1935 Born in Beuthen / East Germany
1944 Refugee
1947 New settlement in Wiedenbrück, West Germany
1954 Goldsmith apprenticeship
1956 Studies painting and art history at Pforzheim   
          Academy of Design
1958 Marriage with Prof. Curt R. Rothe 
1968 Awarded with the Villa-Romana-Prize,
          Resides an works for a year in Florence, Italy
1969 Studies in Europe
1970 Studies in South America
1971 Emigates to New YorkCity
1972 Completes first mezzotints
1973 Designing jewelry for Tiffany´s
1975 Painting in Mexico
1978 Contract with Hammer Galleries in New York
1978 Listed in Who´s Who in American Art  and
          Who´s who in America
1979 Builds studio in Carmel/California
1986 New studios in Brooklyn and Manhattan–
          Graffites
1990 Oversized pastell paintings
1991 Exclusive contract with Riedel Art Gallery,
          Germany
1992 G.H.Rothe Galleries in Carmel
1993 Frescos at Seastone
1994 Studies in France and Italy
1997 Retrospective 25 Years
          Mezzotint-G.H. ROTHE Art Collection
+2007 Geneva/Switzerland

G.H.ROTHE  etching in her house in Carmel/Ca
 

Mezzotinto
Making a mezzotint needs the same initial material as the copperplate print or  the etching, nevertheless it is produced in a completely contradictable way. The copperplate, the subsequent bearer of the motives, is untreated and smooth for prints, etching and graphic arts. An imprint would leave the paper as white as an unexposed photo. In contrast of this the copperplate of the growing, developing mezzotint is evenly roughened by special tools in a velvety way so that the print of such a plate would result in evenly blackened paper. Accordingly, the motive of the mezzotint grows by the artist´s scraping, smoothening, engraving, rocking and deepening the copperplate. This unparalleled technique grants the possibility of sensitively shading the colors from flowing flat bright tones to dark ones as well as precise lines and raising contours. She also went a step further by bringing the traditional black and white technique into the full spectrum of colours.

The plate is coated with colors and a mixture of them by using brushes, tulles and vigorously and carefully rubbing them, handwiping one color into the other.  They are then transferred onto the handmade paper. The plate serves the artist as her canvas, a work lasting for hours and hours to achieve a perfect balance of color and tone, which must occur anew for each printing process.  By this, each print of an edition has the originality of a unique one.

With taking the linseed oiled dilution of colors, G.H. Rothe has succeeded in creating an artistic expression which equals that of a painting. Depending on it‘s size, the completition of such a plate will take weeks and most often months to perfection. The filigree structures on the surface of the relativly soft copperplate permits only a certain number of print proceedings and consequently each edition remains limited to 150-200 prints.

In all the works of G.H. Rothe pictorial presentations are thrillingly connected with surrealistic elements which cause the viewer to have an inward dialogue as if looking through a window into mythic spheres. The extensive spectrum of motives result in the artist´s idea of putting the transcendental message in the foreground instead of the mere representation of a moment. In spite of her photographic exactness of presentation, the emotion and sympathy of the viewer is even more important to her. She implies moments of aesthetic awarness making not only their beauty but their transitoriness clear also. Life and death -  these two poles can often be experienced in a stirring way. G.H. Rothe´s devotion to the complicated technique of the mezzotint is simultaneously the gist and message of her view on life. In addition to her oil paintings and graffities, her mezzotints with their technical absolute and actual impressionism are at the same time in the tradition of the German romanticism and the French realism.

You will find in her artwork:

Original-Mezzotintos

Paintings in oil-tempera

Graffities on wood with gold and mixed techniques

Pastell-paintings

Aquarells and drawings

G.H.ROTHE   "Manhattan"  Tempera-oil painting on wood  `71

G.H. Rothe Art Collection