Tony Rosenthal is best known for creating a staggering list of monumental public art sculpture in cities around the world. For over seven decades Tony Rosenthal created an arc of sculpture in a variety of sizes, styles and media, including wood, steel, bronze, brass, cement and aluminum.
Joseph K. Levene Fine Art, Ltd. is privileged to offer a selection of unique Tony Rosenthal maquette sculptures from some of Tony Rosenthal’s most important projects in a variety of mediums including bronze, steel, brass and aluminum. Unlike the majority of the Tony Rosenthal sculptures recently sold at action, most of the unique sculptures available are signed by the Artist.
TONY ROSENTHAL PUBLIC ART LEGEND
Tony Rosenthal is best known for creating a staggering list of monumental public art sculpture in cities around the world. For over seven decades Tony Rosenthal created an arc of sculpture in a variety of sizes, styles and media, including wood, steel, bronze, brass, cement and aluminum.
Tony Rosenthal dedicated his life to creating art and actively created sculpture everyday in his Southampton, New York studio until he passed away at the age of 94, July 28, 2009. At nine Rosenthal learned the fundamentals of carving sculpture when his mother, an opera singer enrolled him in children's classes at the Art Institute of Chicago where he learned how to carve sculptures in soap. In 1936 Rosenthal earned a B.F.A. from the University of Michiganand in 1952 became the first instructor of sculptue at the University of California, Los Angeles. In 1950 Rosenthal was recipient of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s sculpture award; in 1967, Rosenthal received the outstanding achievement award from the University of Michigan and in 1963 a Ford Foundation Grant.
Named public art legend by Sam Hunter, emeritus professor of art history at Princeton University and author of Tony Rosenthal, Rizzoli 1999 monograph, Tony Rosenthal created more than 100 public art sculptures in many of the largest U.S. cities. "I like to make public sculptures in which people can participate, that have a functional purpose as well as an esthetic one" Rosenthal told Grace Glueck, art reporter, The New York Times June 27, 1980. After creating A Nubian Slave, 1939, a 14’ plaster figurative sculpture commission for the Elgin Watch Building at the 1939 New York World’s Fair, Tony Rosenthal embarked on a storied 70 year public art career, creating an arc of public art, deco inspired sculpture in the 30’s and 40’s, figurative sculpture during the 50’s and abstract minimalism for the remainder of his career.
Tony Rosenthal's Alamo, 1967, the monumental 15' Cor-Ten steel sculpture, also known as the Astor Place Cube, is without dispute Rosenthal's best known and beloved public art sculpture, considered a New York and public art landmark, was first installed as part of Doris C. Freedman's Sculpture in Environment installation, sponsored by New York's administration of recreation & cultural affairs.
Not only was Rosenthal's Alamo, 1967 the first contemporary sculpture purchased by New York City, it was the first Rosenthal public art sculpture not commissioned by an architect. Donald Lippincott, owner Lippincott Foundry, contacted Rosenthal after he saw Ahab, 1966, a 10' geometric brass sculpture Rosenthal hand-cut with a band saw, created for the 1966 Whitney Annual. Unlike most sculptors of metal who used fabricators for larger sculpture, Rosenthal had up until that point exclusively created all metal sculptures himself, even larger works of 20' and 30'. Fortuitously Lippincott asked Rosenthal if he wanted to enlarge the scale of his sculpture beyond what he could accomplish in his studio.
