Every material has its own voice, Dorothea Rockburne tells me.
But you cant force it to do something against its naturea blessing disguised as a limitation.
And beyond her outlier aesthetics, Rockburne was a single mother in a male-dominated scene.
Photographed by James Hamilton,Vogue, June 1977 / © 2025 Dorothea Rockburne / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
What a boon for Londoners, then, that her work should come to their city.
Photo by Eva Herzog.
Courtesy of the artist and Bernheim London/Zurich.
Two of Rockburne’s works from her Egyptian Paintings series on view in “The Light Shines in the Darkness and the Darkness Has Not Understood It: Dorothea Rockburne.” Photo by Eva Herzog. Courtesy of the artist and Bernheim London/Zürich. © 2024 Dorothea Rockburne / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
2024 Dorothea Rockburne / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Kramer first sawDomainas part of RockburnesDia: Beacon showthat ran from 2018 to 2022.
To the artist, both the 2018 and 2024 re-creations are different manifestations of the same mathematical theory.
Rockburne’sDomain of the Variable(1972) at Dia: Beacon in 2018. It was similarly re-created for the Bernheim show.
Its almost like a time-traveling artwork, Kramer says.
RockburnesDomain of the Variable(1972) at Dia: Beacon in 2018.
It was similarly re-created for the Bernheim show.
Installation view of “The Light Shines in the Darkness and the Darkness Has Not Understood It: Dorothea Rockburne.”
I wasnt looking for a job.
I was looking for an education, she tells me.
At Black Mountain, she got one.
Installation view of “The Light Shines in the Darkness and the Darkness Has Not Understood It: Dorothea Rockburne.”
I sat in on everything, she says.
She studied painting with Jack Tworkov and Franz Kline; dance with Merce Cunningham; music with John Cage.
She developed deep friendships with fellow students like Robert Rauschenberg and Cy Twombly.
Rockburne working in Italy in 1972.
I just hung in the doorway, and Max said, Come on in and sit down.
He had a way of drawing that was beautiful.
She watched him do complex equations, and even without full technical comprehension, she was hooked.
Dehn went on to introduce Rockburne to mathematical concepts found in nature and art, like the golden ratio.
He also gave her books and recommended philosophers.
Her marriage ended not long after.
She was still young, in her early 20s.
Sleep was scarce, but she made it work.
It was either that or not be an artist, and I was always an artist.
I asked how her experience was working for Rauschenberg.
Mixed, she says.
Bob was a force.
We loved each other, being around him was a great pleasure.
But it was also the time of the macho male artist.
Installation view of The Light Shines in the Darkness and the Darkness Has Not Understood It: Dorothea Rockburne.
Movement has always been important to Rockburne.
She started taking ballet at age four.
In New York she joined theJudson Dance Theater, the revolutionary group that was known for recruiting non-trained dancers.
Rockburne calls it a remarkably intelligent experience for how it embraced the unpredictable.
I never drew from my wrist.
And when I taught drawing, I wouldnt let anyone sit down.
You have to work from your whole body, she says.
Before the late 1960s, Rockburne didnt show her work much, besides to close friends.
More shows and museum acquisitions followed.
The critical response to her work was positive, especially in recognition of her unique vision.
A1977 article inVogueby the art critic Barbara Rose praised the cool lucid geometry of Dorothea Rockburne.
Shes very interested in the sublime.
The idea of mathematics is the means of getting there, says Kramer.
A monographic show at MoMA followed in 2013, and then the Dia survey a few years later.
Finally, it seems wider recognition has arrived.
Rockburne working in Italy in 1972.
I dont really have a recognition of time the way normal people do, she says.
Its always been like that for hershes more focused on the work.
When I walk into the studio, I transform.
Something happens, and Im different.
Its a transformation one can pick up on in her art.
Yes, theres a high level of both conceptual and mathematical thinking she pours into it.
Rockburne points at a math magazine on her coffee table, encouraging me to pick it up.
You could just look at the pictures and youll get something out of it.
