Anne Rothenstein: ‘Studio’ at Frieze Masters 2025

Anne Rotherstein

Images are our whole world pre-speech, and they seem to have remained my most important language.

My favourite game as a child was shutting my eyes, drawing a large, free-range scribble and, on opening my eyes, finding the images hidden within and revealing them with crayons.

Relevant to this is my feeling for painting landscapes. I paint on wooden panels, and the grain of the wood is integral to the resultant image. The grain may eventually get lost beneath the layers of paint, but when I first examine the surface of a new panel, I will be seduced and guided by what I see in those arbitrary lines and swirls: its scribble. 

The landscapes are as near as I come to abstraction, and they are mysterious to me. 

I am aware that there is a sinister edge to much of the work; of something possibly ominous having just happened, or about to happen. There is often an indefinable black creature or dense black trees, and, if a figure is present, they most often have their back turned to us. 

Perhaps this undercurrent of unease exposes my deep fascination with the dark side of life, with danger, with fear itself. 

And now, of course, the language of my images has absorbed our overtly dangerous and increasingly worrying world. Wars and climate destruction elbow their way in; so often now, the grains on my panels suggest floods and fire rather than rivers and fields. 

Anne Rothenstein is presented by Stephen Friedman Gallery in Studio at Frieze Masters 2025 (Stand C11).

About Studio

Now in its third year, Studio, curated by Sheena Wagstaff, highlights Frieze Masters’ commitment to living practice in dialogue with historical art. By focusing on artists’ place of making, it reflects the idea of the past informing the present moment of creation in an object for the future. This year, the six featured artists are: Glenn Brown, Dorothy Cross, Anju Dodiya, Samia Halaby, R. H. Quaytman and Anne Rothenstein.

Explore Studio

Further Information

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^{Main image: Anne Rothenstein, Night Flood, 2025. Oil on wood panel, 121 x 151.5 cm. Courtesy: the artist and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London}