PAINTING
Rothe did not keep track of most of the paintings she sold, but the ones that are known show her skill and her interest in transparencies. Through allowing layers of paint to dry and using different types of strokes to achieve slight shifts in tones and hues, most of her city and nature landscapes, as well as portraits, display an intricate layering.
In 1987, Rothe completed the “Gerotica” series, which were minutely detailed and intense tempera works honestly depicting sex between aging couples. These intimate scenes explore the eroticism of geriatric bodies, and innocent expressions of ecstasy and pleasure, while revealing Rothe’s virtuosic layering of paint. Rothe’s son Peter discovered these “gerotica” paintings and other artworks years after her death, and they were never shown during her lifetime. In November 2015 the gerotica became the center for the exhibition Seven Drawings at the Walter and McBean Galleries of the San Francisco Art Institute.
