TitleAlamo
Artist
Tony Rosenthal
(1914 - 2009)
Date1967
MediumHand-cut and welded brass and bronze
DimensionsOverall: 9 × 9 1/2 × 9 1/2 in.
Other (Sculpture): 8 × 9 1/2 × 9 1/2 in.
Other (Base): 1 × 5 × 5 in.
Editionunique
SignedSigned and dated on the base: "ROSENTHAL 67"
SubmissionANA diploma presentation, November 13, 1996
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, Gift of Tony Rosenthal, 1996
Object number1996.33
Label TextKnown primarily for his large public sculptures, Bernard (Tony) Rosenthal was born in Highland Park, Illinois and as a young man attended evening and Saturday sculpture classes at the Art Institute of Chicago. He enrolled in the University of Michigan and following graduation returned to Chicago to work with the Russian sculptor Alexander Archipenko, continuing his studies soon thereafter at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. Initially Rosenthal worked in a figurative mode and showed his first public sculpture, "Nubian Slave," at the 1939 World's Fair in New York as part of the Elgin Watch Company's building. During World War II, Rosenthal served as the commander of a unit of artists working on topographical models. He was stationed in England and it was there that he first saw the influential work of British sculptor Henry Moore.Rosenthal returned to Chicago in 1946 and over the following decade his work became increasingly abstract. He won a number of important public commissions, including wall reliefs for General Petroleum's headquarters in 1949 and IBM's western headquarters in 1958. During this time, and throughout the early 1960s, the artist's welded metal sculpture was exhibiting the expressive characteristics of the concurrent Abstract Expressionist movement. By the middle of the decade, however, he had returned to his earlier constructivist roots and adopted the vocabulary of cool reserve and primary structures of Minimalism. Geometry would provide the underlying structure for much of his subsequent work, including additional public commissions and most notably his controversial work "Alamo" of 1967-68. The calligraphic nature of Rosenthal's work from the late 1970s (and continuing through the last decade), recalls the gestural inclinations of his expressionistic sculpture of the 1950s, albeit in a much different way.
"Alamo" was one of 32 public sculptures installed around New York City in 1968 as part of an outdoor exhibition Sculpture in Environment and was located on the traffic island at Astor Place in front of Cooper Union, where it remains today. Organized by the New York City Department of Parks, the exhibition included work by Alexander Leiberman, George Rickey, NA elect, Tony Smith, David Smith, and others and elicited a range of opinions. Perhaps the most controversial work in the show was Rosenthal's "Alamo." The sculptures were intended to be temporary, with the works removed from public view after a couple weeks. However, an anonymous donor gifted "Alamo" to the City so that it could remain in place. Rosenthal has completed numerous additional works that have been based on a similar composition to "Alamo" including "Endover" (1968; University of Michigan), "Cube '72" (1972; Guild Hall, East Hampton), and "Marty's Cube" (1983; Collection Martin Z. Marguiles). This maquette differs from the full scale piece in that it is constructed out of polished brass and bronze, materials that lend a more precious and less severe aspect to the work than the completed sculpture in black painted Cor-Ten steel.
