Karin
Rosenthal: An Introduction
by
Ronald L. Crusan
In 1863, in Paris, Edouard Manet exhibited a painting in the Salon
des Refuses which caused a sensation and marked the beginning of the
modern art movement. Le Dejeuner sur l'herbe depicts
two fully clothed men enjoying a country picnic lunch with two unclothed
women. Why the sensation? The nude had been portrayed successfully in
art for centuries, but rarely had it been the central focus. Prior to
the nineteenth century, it was more typical for the nude figure to appear
as a mythological illustration. Even then, the myth, rather than the nude
figure, was almost invariably the subject. But in Manet's work, the fully
clothed men, secure and in control, are casually juxtaposed with the unclothed,
seemingly vulnerable women. One woman even stares provocatively out of
the picture, and though it is difficult to argue the subject here is nudity,
the positioning of the four figures, and the familiar attitude of the
unclothed women are unquestionably confrontational. What caused the sensation
in Paris was that the woman in the painting appeared, not nude, but naked,
and though mild by today's standards, the painting changed forever the
public's perception of what is acceptable in art.
In his book The Nude, Kenneth Clark distinguishes between
the nude human form and the naked one. He writes, "To be naked is to be
deprived of our clothes, and the word implies some of the embarrassment
most of us feel in that condition. The word 'nude,' on the other hand,
carries, in educated usage, no uncomfortable overtone. The vague image
it projects into the mind is not of a huddled and defenseless body, but
of a balanced, prosperous, and confident body: the body re-formed."
 |
Rosenthal's
work is unique in that she combines the best of many art forms:
the nude, landscape, abstraction, sculpture and photography. Her
lush printing provides a forum for the presentation of the sculptural
nude, melded into a background of natural landscape. |
 |
Karin Rosenthal's photographs
present inviting images of confident, balanced nude forms in and of water.
The subtleties of the flesh and their reflections on the water beckon
the observer to enjoy the cool water as the sensual elements of the body
play against it. Rosenthal's work is unique in that she combines the best
of many art forms: the nude, landscape, abstraction, sculpture and photography.
Her lush printing provides a forum for the presentation of the sculptural
nude, melded into a background of natural landscape. The camera angles
and close-up shots emphasize a reduction of the complex forms, which relax
into an atmosphere of simple abstraction, allowing the sensuality of light
and water-play on the body to invite one in without introducing the physical
and emotional confusion of the merely sexual. Her images of abstracted
nude forms are powerfully sculptural and fully present, but never confrontational,
never naked. When sensual pleasure becomes obscured by sexual pleasure,
the nude becomes the naked, and often the profane.
 |
Her
images of abstracted nude forms are powerfully sculptural and fully
present, but never confrontational, never naked. |
|
In the nineteenth century
nudity was usually the primary subject when a nude figure appeared in
an image. Scantily clad or completely naked women usually posed for "art"
photography, though little about the images warranted aesthetic commendation.
It was in the early twentieth century that the nude figure in photography
began to be used for something more. Photographers such as Alfred Stieglitz
and Edward Weston emphasized the inherent abstract elements of the figure
and placed a high value on its form. That the nude could be freed from
the confines of surface titillation was a revelation. This breakthrough
developed concurrently with the American Modernist movement, which simplified
form and content.
Rosenthal's photographs
pay homage to those seers who combined photography and the nude for a
higher aesthetic purpose, but she clearly draws her own aesthetic conclusions
through the skilled combination of the abstracted nude and water in her
Nudes in Water series. just as the nude is a subject of lasting
fascination, so is the subject of water. Deeply embedded in the unconscious
mind of man is an affinity for water and the ocean's movements. We are
born from water, and life emerged from the primordial waters to occupy
the land. Whether it is a yearning to return to that from which all life
came, there is something vast, knowing, and reassuring about the pulse
of the waves of the oceans. Like migrating beasts we flock to the world's
beaches each year to warm ourselves in the summer sun and cool ourselves
in the tidal surf. Whatever it is that beckons us to seek renewal at the
ocean's doors, it surely does exist within us.
 |
She
uses the attractive elements of water, abstraction, and the nude
body to provide sensual pleasure while de-emphasizing the sexual. |
|
There is something
primal and satisfying about the nude and water. In combination, they establish
an irresistible rapport between the viewer and the art - an effect that
is presented clearly in Karin Rosenthal's work. She uses the attractive
elements of water, abstraction, and the nude body to provide sensual pleasure
while de-emphasizing the sexual. Sexual pleasure, dependent on immediate
and physical gratification, can be fleeting and mundane, while sensual
pleasure lives its own life of constant anticipation and renewal. She
builds the anticipation and expectation that a powerful combination of
elements has been forged. Together, they become something other, something
potent, and something more than their individual qualities could deliver
alone.
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