RANDALL ROSENTHAL

Wooden Sculptures of Randall Rosenthal The things you're about to see might look like just a bunch of uninteresting everyday items that don't deserve any attention, but every one of them has been hand carved from a single piece of wood. Carving a piece of wood into a bunch of newspapers, or books is hard enough, but using trompe l'oeil painting techniques, Randall Rosenthal manages to make his works look just like the real thing. Trying to keep his audience guessing, he normally just allows just one of his sculptures to be touched, while leaving them to discover if the rest are also made of wood. His "Lunch Money" sculpture, representing stacks of hundred dollar bills in a corrugated cardboard box took six weeks to carve and another six to finish painting. To get their hands on that kind of wooden cash, art lovers had to pay $25,000, the real kind. www.funnymad.com :- Watch it on

Artist Statement
I started painting as a child and continued through college and into my early forties. In the mid 1980s I started working as an architectural designer and model maker for architect Norman Jaffe.  Eventually Mr. Jaffe asked me to carve two twenty foot long friezes on the wall of a house in Southampton. This commission led to a decade of large architectural carvings. One project was for an Ambo (lectern) for a church in Seattle, Washington. An open book was carved as the bible rest. I was so intrigued by this object that I began carving open books. Then I started painting the pages.

In 2004 I was offered a show at Guild Hall in East Hampton, New York. Working toward the show I switched from mahogany, which I had used for my architectural sculpture, to pine. The pine was transformational as the new work was no longer obvious sculptures of books carved from wood but objects that jumped from seeming reality to sculpture depending on the viewer’s distance from them.  The paint and ink sat on the pine much as it would on paper. Eventually the scope of the work expanded from books to any paper object, such as charts, cards and even money.

The work is often described as trompe l’oeil. It is not. (At least not intentionally). There is no attempt to hide the fact that they are wooden. Many dimensions are unmeasured and many shapes and thicknesses are subtly exaggerated. I think of them more as three dimensional free hand drawings than attempts at photo -realism.

Each sculpture is hand carved from a single block of Vermont white pine and hand painted with ink and acrylic. No glue is used. There are no preliminary drawings. The idea flows from my mind’s eye in a totally reductive process from the original block of wood to the finished sculpture.

Education
BFA, Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh, PA

Work Experience
Associate Designer "GATES OF THE GROVE"
.....Synagogue, East Hampton, NY
.....Norman Jaffe, F.A.I.A. Architect

Awards
Multiple Awards, Santa Barbara Art Association
New York State Association of Architects
.....Certificate of Excellence in Design
"TEN ARTISTS", Invitational, Guild Hall Museum
.....East Hampton, NY
“FEDERAL BANK PURCHASE AWARD”
.....Larry Rivers, Juror
“EXCELLENCE IN CRAFTSMANSHIP”
.....American Woodworker, First Place, Professional
.....Category
“ART AND DESIGN AWARDS” (two awards out of four)
.....American Institute of Architects
National Sculpture Society Award Show, New York, NY
Smithsonian Crafts Show, Best in Show
.....Artists Choice Award
National Sculpture Society Award Show
.....Fairfield University, CT

Commissions
Merck Pharmaceuticals, Rahway, NJ
Walt Disney, Glendale, CA
Dearborn Construction, Boise, ID
St. James Cathedral, National Competition,
.....Seattle, WA
Mr. and Mrs. Steve Wynn, Ketchum, ID
James Ruscitto, A.I.A., Architect
Airport Public Art Competition Commission,
.....East Hampton, NY
Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Arkin, Amagansett, NY
Mr. and Mrs. Peter Knobe, Vail, CO
Robert Barnes and Chris Coy, A.I.A., Architects
"MODERN MASTERS", Documentary, HGTV
Fort Smith Public Library, Fort Smith, AK
Mr. and Mrs. Mike Chew, Sandy, UT
Mr. Michael Ohstein, Old Brookville, NY
Collection of Fleur and Charles Besler, Rockville, MD
Mr. Bob Le Blanc, Bation Rouge, LA
"CUTTING BOARD" Mr. Ed Herbst

Shows
Selected Artists Gallery, New York, NY
Gallery J.A.S.A., Munich, Germany
Numerous one man and group shows

Museum Show
"ON THE BOOKS"  The Guild Hall Museum,
.....East Hampton, NY

Please contact us for other available works
info@jsauergallery.com