Sculptor Tony Rosenthal, with his piece outside police headquarters in New York City.
(New York Times File/1973)
Tony Rosenthal, 94; scupltor created ‘The Cube’
Sculptor Tony Rosenthal, with his piece outside police headquarters in New York City.
(New York Times File/1973)
NEW YORK - Tony Rosenthal, who created “Alamo,’’ the eternally popular revolving black cube in Astor Place in the East Village, and many other public sculptures, died Tuesday in Southampton, N.Y. He was 94.
The cause was a stroke, said his wife, Cynthia.
In sheer visibility, Mr. Rosenthal occupied a leading place among contemporary artists. His five works of public sculpture in Manhattan, and dozens of similar works in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and other cities, guaranteed him a vast audience every week, yet he remained, if not obscure, much less than famous.
“He reminds me of a character actor,’’ said Joseph K. Levene, his agent. “You know the face but not the name. With him, you know the art.’’
He was best known for “Alamo,’’ familiarly called “The Cube’’ and a neighborhood favorite since it was installed in 1967 as part of the city’s “Sculpture in Environment’’ program. All 25 works in the program were intended to be temporary installations, but after residents in the Astor Place area petitioned the city, “Alamo’’ stayed.
A 15-foot-square cube, made of steel plates, it stands on one point and revolves on a pedestal, which has endeared it to students at nearby Cooper Union, skateboarders who rally around it, and East Village tourists
Mr. Rosenthal is also represented in Manhattan by “Rondo,’’ the gleaming bronze circle in front of the New York Public Library’s branch on East 58th Street; “5 in 1,’’ at Police Plaza; and“SteelPark’’ at 80th Street near First Avenue.
Bernard Rosenthal was born in Highland Park, Ill., a suburb of Chicago. He took sculpture classes at the Art Institute of Chicago during high school and decided on his career after seeing plaster reproductions of the work of the Russian sculptor Alexander Archipenko at the University of Michigan, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1936.
On returning to Chicago, he approached Archipenko, who was living in Chicago at the time, and arranged to receive lessons in exchange for casting some of Archipenko’s terra-cotta figures. Mr. Rosenthal, who worked in a semirealistic figurative style, did his first commission, “A Nubian Slave,’’ for the Elgin Watch Co. building at the 1939 World’s Fair. Soon after, he enrolled in Cranbrook Academy of Art, eager to study with the figurative sculptor Carl Milles.
During World War II, Mr. Rosenthal was sent by the Army Corps of Engineers to Britain, where he commanded a unit of artists making topographic models. At the end of the war he taught art to soldiers waiting to return home from France.
In 1946, he married Halina Kolowicz, a student in one of his classes. She died in 1991.
He leaves his wife, Cynthia.
Encouraged by Charles and Ray Eames, whom he had befriended at Cranbrook, Mr. Rosenthal moved to Los Angeles, where he found himself in great demand to produce sculpture for the many buildings going up in the city.
His work has been included in exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
In 1960, as his style turned to geometric abstraction, he moved to New York and began showing with the dealer Sam Kootz, who persuaded him to use his nickname, Tony, professionally.
Mr. Rosenthal exhibited all over the world. In 1999, Rizzoli published a monograph about his work, “Tony Rosenthal,’’ with a forward by Edward Albee.
A hard-working and prolific artist into his 90s, he found that one honor eluded him.
“He never had a retrospective, but that’s all right,’’ Levene said. “He has one every day on the streets of New York.’’
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
