Kali Drawings for Irving

Four Illustrations for Irving Rosenthal translation of

Ramprasad Sen Complete Lyrics;

graphite on paper; 8.5 x 5.5 inches each; April 2015.

At one point Irving asked if I would make some drawings

for his translation of the complete lyrics

of the legendary 18th century Bengali songwriter,

Ramprasad Sen.

He allowed me to read as much as I cared to

in his Library, and he made a copy of one lyric,

about a dissatisfied sculptor, to study at my leisure.

The head, gripped by the hair in one of Kali's left hands,

in the first drawing, is a portrait of Irving.

Oh Calcutta, why should I go to Benares when I have the Flower of Bengal?

Irving Rosenthal (October 1930 - April 2022) RIP

Irving Rosenthal in the Garden; acrylic & toner on card stock; 11 x 8.5 inches; February 1997. My old friend, Irving, died on Friday (22 April 2022). He was 91 years old. I was told by his good friend and longtime constant companion, Sam, that they moved him to a room overlooking the garden after he fell and broke four bones recently. (He should have done those exercises the doctor gave him to improve his equilibrium. They worked for me.) These aren’t the best portraits I painted of him. The best from this series are in his archive. I’ll post some other portraits I made of him, but these will do for now. RIP. May his name be a blessing. 

Irving & Joel in a Tableau Vivant from Flaming Creatures; acrylic & gesso on canvas; 16 x 12 inches; April 1997. I was able to rent a badly recorded video of Flaming Creatures from Le Video and took many photos with my Pentax, on which I based a series of paintings on card stock for Giftland and Max Fish. This canvas shows Irving Rosenthal and Joel Markman in one of the cameo tableaux vivants they, Marian Zazeela and LaMonte Young posed for near the end of the film shoot. Appropriately enough, one of the last long conversations I had with Irving largely concerned Joel and his peculiar beauty (and difficulty). We agreed he was very beautiful.

Irving Rosenthal as Master Humphrey; acrylic, graphite & gesso on grey card; 1.5 inches diameter; January 2019. From the ID Portrait series (44 miniatures) made for A cumulative tale... curated by Robin Winters & Brigitte Engler for the Spring Break Art Show, Fact and Fiction, February 2019. The image on which the miniature is based was a capture from my long (now lost) video of the Old Curiosity Shop where Irving played Master Humphrey (aka the Single Gentleman), the editor of the story. I gave this portrait to John Matturri because of his great admiration for Irving (in exchange for one of John's portrait photos of Jack Smith). The last time Irving called me was to praise an essay by John on Jack that Irving mistakenly thought I had written under a fictitious name. I assured him that he had met John long ago and recorded a video interview with him recounting the time Jack set his apartment on fire for a film, which John shot for him and Jack eventually misplaced.