Sisters

Susanna Levine Fisher (b. New York 1948)
USA, 1977
Oil on canvas, h. 30 x w. 18 in. unframed
Cincinnati Skirball Museum, B’nai B’rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum Collection,  2015.17.131

The daughter of artists Jack Levine and Ruth Gikow, Susanna often modeled for her mother, as well as for the Social Realist painter Raphael Soyer, with whom her mother studied early in her career. The simple title of this work, Sisters, is deceiving. The narrative is anything but simple and raises more questions than it answers. There is no physical context for these figures, which creates a sense of isolation and apartness. Is the palpable estrangement temporary or permanent? What does their body language say about the sisters, so different in terms of their clothing, hair color, and style? What does the painting reveal about the artist’s sense of the human condition? Of family? Susanna Levine Fisher is adept in her draftsmanship and her handling of color, and not least in creating a mood of disconnected sadness.

Publications:
Ori Soltes, Intimations of Immortality: Jack Levine, Ruth Gikow, and Susanna Levine Fisher, B’nai B’rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum, 1995, p. 26.