• Existential Cartoons: Barbara Rosenthal in Moscow

    Date posted: October 9, 2007 Author: jolanta
    One of the oldest exhibition spaces for contemporary art in Moscow,
    L-gallery, presents the project of New York avangardist Barbara
    Rosenthal, " Existential Cartoons".  The theme of an individual’s
    reflection and self-identification within larger society has consumed
    artist Barbara Rosenthal for many years.  Her use of
    performance/installation for creative expression began in 1968, before
    that combined genre had even been named.  From there, she made early
    experiments in the genre of performance-video, actively collaborating
    with Bill Creston, one of the first five video artists in the world.      		Image


    by Sergei Yerkov

    Image

    One of the oldest exhibition spaces for contemporary art in Moscow, L-gallery, presents the project of New York avangardist Barbara Rosenthal, " Existential Cartoons".  The theme of an individual’s reflection and self-identification within larger society has consumed artist Barbara Rosenthal for many years.  Her use of performance/installation for creative expression began in 1968, before that combined genre had even been named.  From there, she made early experiments in the genre of performance-video, actively collaborating with Bill Creston, one of the first five video artists in the world.  Currently being professionally involved with philology as well as pictorial representation, Rosenthal is interested in the linguistic and cultural barriers to communication, and the efforts to overcome them with combinations of installation, video, performance, text and graphic media.



    This Moscow premier presents a long-developing series of imagery by Barbara Rosenthal never before exhibited. The hand-on-mouse drawn cartoons have been evolving for about 10 years, concurrently with her more frequently seen other image/text works in photography and video.  All her work utilizes her own experiences both as a unique and as a typical human in different life situations, and take the shape of a series of ironic and at the same time simple statements, which is characteristic of the contemporary American conceptualism her work is known to be part of.  The project realized at L-gallery includes 20 large digital prints, a room-size DVD-installation, and an evening of performance videos during which she engaged the viewers in discussion about the presentation of identity issues in art, and the difference between “hot” art as a manifestation of the artist’s psyche vs “cool” art as a straight illustration of concept.  After so long a working period for this project, she decided to show its current state in Moscow now because it “touches on the urgency of Russia’s contemporary resurgence of spirituality and humor, its new prosperity amid the continued stratification of its society, its struggle to define itself and at the same time overcome the barriers between its people of different groups and nationalities.  We all search for common language and values, and we recognize other points of view and individual personalities as well as the stereotypes of disparate people.  My work is about who we are as individuals and as a species, about what is sane and what is crazy, what is now and what might be forever.”



    The delicate irony of works by Barbara Rosenthal sharply emphasizes the emotions she feels as she recognizes the conflicts of life for all humans.  Her prints portray the sequential process of the evolution of mankind from the moment of the Big Bang, which marked the beginning of our universe, before the appearance of the contemporary average human. As the quintessence of the present developmental stage of humanity, the key work in this show depicts a prehistoric savage standing against the wall inside his cave entrance, secluded from the surrounding peace of the undisturbed natural environment outside, yet he is holding a pistol in his hand. He is both protecting the interior of his habitat at the same time he is about to leave as predator to that exterior world.  Rosenthal’s simplicity and the deliberately laconic drawings-cum-computer graphics makes it possible for the artist to reach the absolutely clean statement that solidly connects her art with the ongoing traditions of American conceptualism since the 70’s, to that of the present, worldwide.



    L-gallery of Contemporary Art.
    Oktyabrskaya, 28, Moscow Telephone: (495) 289-2491
    Installation June 1-15, 11am-7pm T-Sat.  Performance videos and artist’s talk June 8, 7pm
    http://www.emedialoft.org/artistspages/barbararosenthal.htm

     

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