Minimalism In Motion

Trailblazing artist Dorothea Rockburne returns to her roots with an exhibition at Dia:Beacon.

- Mattie Kahn

Dorothea Rockburne leans forward on her couch and pauses to think. She’s in her studio, a SoHo sprawl that looks less colossal than it is with all she’s crammed inside it over the last four decades: books, cans of paint thinner, papers, teacups, shelves piled with folders, tables, framed prints, a computer, a cat. (“I live in the corner,” she says. “Just put me wherever the art doesn’t fit.”)

Rockburne, 85, remembers stories in succession—childhood adventures in Montreal; sexism at Black Mountain College; parsing mathematical theorems; dancing for Judson Dance Theater; motherhood; the tables she waited; the pieces she made. But for a moment, she’s silent, thinking back on her past. For decades, she’s been the rare woman who found her voice in a universe ruled by men. Painters, sculptors, gallerists, dealers, critics, even her friends—all men. And she’s thrived. How? Rockburne smiles.

“Sheer guts,” she says. “That’s how I did it—sheer guts.”