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.