Standing Girl
Artist
Stanley Louis Rosenthal
(American, 1942-2015)
Date2006
MediumColored pencil on paper
DimensionsImage Size: 28 × 20 in. (71.1 × 50.8 cm)
Frame Size: 36 × 27 3/4 in. (91.4 × 70.5 cm)
ClassificationsDrawing
Credit LineGift of Kathlyn Rosenthal, 2018
Object numberUAC6649
DescriptionEmploying a single colored pencil to sketch “Standing Girl,” Rosenthal manages to render a dramatized tableau befitting of his playfully curious style. Though the scene is sparse, it manages to conjure up intrigue. The girl leans listlessly up against a corner wall, framed below the curve of the ceiling. She is arrestingly illuminated; one can imagine a single unshaded bulb looming below the bottom edge of the composition, casting bold shadows and cloaking her blank expression in untoward mystery. Her figure is echoed imprecisely onto the wall behind her, the shadow further aggrandizing her presence in the unencumbered room. Contrasting highlights and shadows dance across the page outlining incidental details- the puckering seam of the curtain, the weave of her belt, the crooked crease scaling the wall- while the solid structure of the built-in bookshelf, oversaturated by the blinding bulb dissolves into the white of the paper. What could easily be constructed as a simply study evolves into the snapshot of a narrative, drafted in the mind of the viewer as details of her biography, elements of her character are unveiled with each pencil mark. Every unkempt strand of hair, the asymmetry of her cherubian, yet knowing face, the hem of her unraveling crop top add an explanatory layer, providing motive and backstory to Rosenthal’s deceptively enigmatic portrait.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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