Susan Unterberg

Susan Unterberg began her ongoing exploration of family relationships with a series of photographs of mothers and daughters in the Mother Series (1985). What strikes us first about Unterberg's photographs of mothers and daughters is their extraordinary honesty, an honesty that could only come with age, with difficulty, an honesty that perhaps could come only from a middle-aged woman.

There is a kind of exhilaration in this unflattering presentation of self ("unlovable, an old woman, and bummed out"); worse yet, it is the presentation of all that we resist in our mothers, the self each of us will become in old age. Contrary to Sartre's claim that after forty we get the face we deserve, women after forty get the face they have the courage to present.

About the Artist:
Susan Unterberg was born in New York City in 1941. She received a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College in 1977 and an M.A. in Photography from New York University in 1985. Her recent solo exhibitions include: Fathers and Sons, Laurence Miller Gallery, New York City; Sons and Mothers, Houghton House Gallery, Geneva, NY; Close Ties, The New Museum of Contemporary Art in 1994. Currently her work is on exhibit at the Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York City. She lives in New York City.

Introductory Essay by Jo Anna Isaak / Pictures from the Exhibition / List of Works / Excerpts of Essays included in the Catalog / History of the Exhibition / How to order a print copy of the catalog / About the Curator / Website Credits