Choices
Artist
Stanley Louis Rosenthal
(American, 1942-2015)
Date1985
MediumWatercolor
DimensionsImage Size: 39 × 27 in. (99.1 × 68.6 cm)
Frame Size: 48 1/2 × 36 in. (123.2 × 91.4 cm)
ClassificationsDrawing
Credit LineLamoreaux Incentive Fund purchase, 1993
Object numberUAC723
DescriptionA woman stands, leaning in a rather lax manner, hip pressed against the wall behind her, left arm stretched up and away from her body resting gently on a protruding beam. This lackadaisical pose is challenged by her stare which confronts the viewer’s gaze. The attitude evidenced by her expression is heightened by her outfit, curated to exude a degree of badassery inherently melded into black leather and spikes. Cast shadows lend an element of foreboding edge. However, there’s still a glint of hesitancy with her perspicacious eyes. A chaotic assortment of objects surround the casual vixen. Some emit a playful whimsy; the dangling Smurf doll, the arrangement of plates showcasing a conch shell, an inverted pair of glasses, and a vidalia onion. Others produce more ominous connotations, especially when seen in concert with the casually intimidating figure, entrenched in theatrical shadows. Bookending plant cages held up by a cacophony of ropes, fastend tentatively to the wall with electrical tape take on a sort of domineering tone; the scene reads like a haphazard Mistress’s first dungeon, championed, albeit trepidatiously, by this cherubian dominatrix.The title “Choices” invites questions due to its lack of specificity. Who is making choices? This work is a part of a series, marking Stanley Louis Rosenthal’s re-introduction to the watercolor medium, demonstrating a deliberate choice to turn away from printmaking. The ambiguous term applies to the portrait’s subject as well, her constructed outward appearance delineates choices made in the construction of her presented subjectivity. Though who we are may not be up for debate, how we opt to reflect our interior surfacialy involves a series of choices that unravel over the course of daily life. We as viewers have our own choices to make when engaging with the work. What does the painting mean to us? Do we investigate its projective narrative further or let the image alone wash over us, allowing our individualized imaginations concoct its own tale? Rosenthal’s softly rendered watercolor study of a hardened character within a scene defined by solid structure echoes the complex, often juxtapositional nature of decision making itself.
“Choices” is a part of a series of large scale watercolor portraits taken on by Stanley Louis Rosenthal, marking his return to the medium after many years as a printmaker. This transition allowed him to “explore both scale and color in ways the print media didn’t.” Rosenthal’s desire to expand the scale of his watercolors beyond the small format usually employed in watercolors lies in a compulsion to pay homage to contemporary realist paintings. Observing from real life, the artist worked slowly, first choosing his models then compiling the elements of their captured environment, working on his constructed scenes layer by translucent layer over the course of three to five months. “Choices” is a quintessential Rosenthal portrait wherein the medium’s delicacy is challenged by its encompassing scale and the playful absurdity of the depicted, ambiguous scene.
Cleveland, OH native Stanley Louis Rosenthal left his beloved hometown for Pittsburgh, PA to study at Carnegie Mellon University. After obtaining his BFA, Rosenthal moved to Detroit, MI in 1964, serving as a Graduate Assistant in the Department of Art and Art History at Wayne State University. After earning his Master’s from the department, Rosenthal was hired on as a full time faculty member in Printmaking in 1969, reaching professorial status in 2006. Over his fifty years of engagement with Wayne State’s Art Department, his charismatic nature as caring, genuine individual, devoted not only to his craft but to his student’s education served as inviting and inspirational presence resonating throughout the downtown campus. Throughout his career, Rosenthal has been awarded recognition for both his instructional and artistic efforts. He has received accolades on regional and national levels as a printmaker and a painter from Watercolor USA, State of the Art National Watercolor Invitational, and Michigan Water Color Society’s annual exhibitions. In 2001, Rosenthal received the President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, WSU. In addition to his roles as award-winning instructor and artist, Rosenthal served as chair of the Michigan Water Color Society, President of Michigan Association of Printmakers, and artist/advisor to the Graphic Arts Council of the Detroit Institute of Arts over the course of his career. He also served as a juror and speaker at many various locations in Michigan and beyond. Additionally, in 2013 he received WSU’s esteemed Murray E. Jackson Scholar in the Arts Award and subsequently put on a two part exhibition titled Memories: Stanley Louis Rosenthal: part one centered on new works by Rosenthal from the collection Memory Series, the second half involved taking a retrospective look at his older body of work in full. Stanley Louis Rosenthal passed away in late 2015. To honor his memory, WSU’s Department of Art and Art History has since crafted a scholarship in his name.
Written by Kat Goffnett
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