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Tony
Rosenthal Biography
Tony Rosenthal, the renowned Sculptor of Public Art,
was best known for creating large Geometric
Sculptures in Public Places, including Alamo,
the Monumental 15 Foot Cor-Ten Steel Sculpture
also known as the Astor
Place Cube. Considered a New York Landmark,
Rosenthal's Alamo, 1967
was the first Contemporary Sculpture purchased
by the City of New York as part of the New York
Public Art Fund.
Born
Bernard Rosenthal on August 9, 1914, in Highland
Park, Illinois, Mr. Rosenthal passed away on
July 28, 2009, in Southampton, NY, with his
wife, Cynthia, at his side.
Encouraged
by his Mother to take art classes as a child,
Mr. Rosenthal created Art throughout his life.
He enjoyed the process of making Art as well
as the public’s interaction with his Art.
Rosenthal earned a B.F.A. from both the University
of Michigan and the Cranbrook
Academy of Art.
Rosenthal
never stopped creating Art and continued to
work every day in his studio until his death
at the age of 94. Mr. Rosenthal dedicated his
life to creating Sculpture and a day was hardly
complete if the Artist did not go to his Studio,
always exploring new paths and new ideas. The New York Times created a slide-show selection of Public Art created by Tony Rosenthal.
Although
Mr. Rosenthal began his career creating Figurative
Sculpture, and won wide acclaim, including a
1939 commission for the Elgin Watch Company
building at the World's Fair, Sam Kootz, Rosenthal's
Art Dealer, later convinced the Artist to concentrate
on creating Abstract Geometric Sculptures which
won Rosenthal even wider acclaim. Kootz also
encouraged the Artist to use his nickname, "Tony",
and since 1960, the Artist was professionally
known and credited as Tony Rosenthal.
Best
known for his large Public Art Sculptures, Tony
Rosenthal created Sculptures in a variety of
mediums, including Wood, Aluminum, Cor-Ten Steel;
sizes, from Maquettes of a few inches to Monumental
Outdoor Sculpture of several hundred feet. Instantly
recognizable and seen by millions every year,
Rosenthal's Sculptures are better known by their
shape and landmark appearance. Edward
Albee, the Pulitzer Prize Winning Playwright,
said it best in his introduction to Sam
Hunter's Book "Tony Rosenthal," Rizzoli,
1999, "Tony Rosenthal goes to his studio
every day, wrenches steel, bends aluminum, cuts
and bolts, fashions and refines. He is both
artisan and artist, rendering conscious that
which his creative instinct insists upon."
Mr.
Albee further writes, "Tony works in all
sizes. His monumental outdoor pieces, set in
landscapes or in busy city spaces, seem always
to have been there. His more intimate Wall
Sculptures and standing forms have a monumentality
no matter what their actual size." "Like
all the important metal workers - like Stankiewicz,
like Caro, like Serra, like Chamberlain - Rosenthal's
objects instruct us, alter our perceptions,
disturb and thrill us by their audacity, their
wonder and their inevitability."
Tony
Rosenthal’s Cube
Sculptures are like a city, intelligent
formations with secrets, hiding, balancing and
finding in limitations all the possibilities
of a mixed society. Within a Rosenthal Cube,
we see other shapes, planes, exposed creating
steps or stairs, like a mountain difficult to
climb. But climb we do, because it is the invention
of clean geometry that makes man other than
nature.
Rosenthal’s
Rings, Discs and
Rondos, another important series of Works
that Rosenthal explored over the past five decades.
Rosenthal's Circle Sculptures react to the invasion
of their environment, so that the Sculpture
itself becomes a frame, with which to see the
environment through. Being framed by the romance
of a point of view, the feeling of movement,
the reverberation of movement, we see the vigor
from the choices that are commanded by Rosenthal’s
Sculpture. Tony Rosenthal finds, discovers and
reports to us what we might not have seen without
him.
It
can be said that Tony Rosenthal's Sculpture
presents the solutions for complexity finding
order; sometimes it feels like tackling a problem,
sometimes the appeal is emotional like the gestures
of a dance or survival. But Rosenthal Sculptures
always revel in the element of discovery, finding
his way through arrangements of line and space
like the strong power and strength of a candid
camera moment, expressing the fleeting excitement
of process, remaining because a sculptural rendition
is created. Rosenthal allows us to look at remembrance,
recalling life as it was, or what we desire
that it may be.
Rosenthal's
"Alamo", the
Monumental 15 Foot Cor-Ten Steel Sculpture is
internationally known as the "Astor
Place Cube". So famous is this landmark
Sculpture that it was provided as the final
visual clue on Season 10 Amazing
Race Season Finale underscoring that Rosenthal's
Sculptures are instantly recognizable and more
known by shape than name.
Tony
Rosenthal had recently completed a series of
masterful Abstract Wood and Metal Wall
Sculptures. In Rosenthal’s Wall
Sculptures, the Artist created a metaphor
of "writing on the wall"; flat, hard-edged
shapes, contrasting suggestions of the organic,
all parts of design, shape and organization;
the marriage of the hard edge and soothing curves.
For example, in "Untitled"
("Two Blue Stripes"), 2007, the
yellow shape resembles the profile of a woman's
body, while the curved black shape looks like
her rear silhouette. Rosenthal presents contrasting
shapes within the confines of a geometric circle.
Sam
Hunter, Professor and Art Critic named Rosenthal
a "Public Art Legend". According to
the Smithsonian Institution, which catalogues
Sculpture located in United States Museums and
Public Art Sites, Rosenthal has more Sculptures
in Museums and Public places than Anthony Caro,
Roy Lichtenstein, Richard Serra, Richard Stankiewicz
and Frank Stella.
Sculptures
by Rosenthal are included in the Collections
of Albright-Knox
Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York; The
Chrysler Museum, Norfolk Virginia; City
of New York; Fashion
Institute of Technology, New York; Guild
Hall Museum, East Hampton, New York; Israel
Museum, Jerusalem; Los
Angeles County Museum of Art, California;
The Museum of
Modern Art, New York; National
Museum of American Art: Smithsonian Institution,
Washington, DC.; National
Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. (Robert
and Jane Meyerhoff Collection); The
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York;
Whitney Museum of
American Art, New York; Yale
University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.
Rosenthal Works are also included in many Corporate
and Private Collections.
While
"Alamo" is
the most well known Rosenthal Sculpture, the
Artist has created a long list of successful
Public Sculptures that date back to 1939, when
"Nubian Slave" was installed at the
1939 New York World's Fair. Other famous and
now iconic projects include the Artist's "Rondo",
the elegantly highly polished Bronze Disc, installed
on 59th Street off Park Avenue in 1969; "5
in 1" the 35 Foot Massive Cor-Ten Steel
Sculpture of Interlocking Discs, installed at
1 Police Plaza in New York City.
Additional
Sculptures include "JS
Bach Variation #9", 1990, at the Ravina
Music Festival Park, Illinois; "Pass-Thru",
1988, Hofstra University; Big Six, 1975, a 10'
Structural Steel Work at The Chrysler Museum,
Norfolk, Virginia; Odyssey
I, 1967, a Large Red Painted Steel Sculpture
at the Open
Air Museum of Sculpture, Antwerp, Belgium
and "Hammarskjold",
1977, the 20 Foot Structural Steel Work at the
Fashion Institute of Technology.
Since
1940, Tony Rosenthal had numerous Solo and Group
Exhibitions. Mr. Rosenthal had a distinguished
association with preeminent Art Dealers; from
1961-66, Tony Rosenthal had Solo Exhibitions
at the prestigious Kootz Gallery, New York.
When Mr. Kootz retired in 1966, Rosenthal exhibited
at M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York, and
in 1988, began exhibiting with Galerie Denise
Rene, Paris. Rosenthal also had Solo Exhibitions
at Andre Emmerich Gallery, New York and Maxwell
Davidson Gallery, New York.
In
addition, Rosenthal Sculptures have been included
in hundreds of Group Exhibitions; Rosenthal
was included in the National Academy, New York,
Museum Exhibition titled, "The
Abstract Impulse: Fifty Years of Abstraction
at the National Academy, 1956-2006".
Rosenthal was included in the Margulies
Collection At The Warehouse, Miami, Florida,
Exhibition "Sculpture: 1940 thru the Present
- Selections from the private collection of
Martin Z. Margulies". The Exhibition also
included William DeKooning, Donald Judd, Sol
LeWitt, Joan Miro, Isamu Noguchi, George Segal,
Richard Serra, Tony Smith.
For
more information on Tony Rosenthal including
Purchase & Commission Inquiries please e-mail:
info@TonyRosenthal.com
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