Stephen Rosenthal: 06–08 Paintings

Press Release

Margarete Roeder Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of paintings from the last two years by Stephen Rosenthal from  April 4–May 10, 2008. A reception for the artist will be held on Friday, April 4, from 6–8 p.m.

The half-dozen paintings that comprise the exhibition are moderate in scale and tone, seen from afar they present fractionally mottled planes executed in calm, recessive tones of beige or light gray. Only close examination can provide the viewer with the full understanding and experience these complex but not complicated paintings require.

Apparently irregular patches of closely-hued color reveal themselves to be carefully calibrated areas designed to provide equal but distinct importance to the planes and their edges. Eschewing the flashy bravura of high color and the facture of “masterly” impasto, the soft, almost benign color and barely inflected surface draw the viewer in—literally.

Here and there, once or twice across the surface an indistinct form executed in an abruptly contrasting shade, black or perhaps ochre, stands out from the field. Activating the entire surface these marks do not operate as signs—they are too nebulous for that—but rather as devices to demonstrate the depth of these seemingly shallow surfaces. Appearing to float above the surrounding plane, in fact some appear to be beneath, waves of light color encroaching upon their edges.

At first glance these works might appear austere, even resistant, the modest scale and liminal color challenge our faculties, but indeed it is the threshold that these works create that permit us an experience both coloristic and spatial, perceptual and cerebral.

Stephen Rosenthal was born 1935 in Washington, DC; he studied at Yale School of Art (MFA, 1961); he has been exhibiting internationally since 1963. His works are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. The artist lives and works in New York.

For further information and photographs contact Margarete Roeder Gallery
Tel (212) 925 6098 Fax (212) 431 7050  info@roedergallery.com