Tide Line Painting

M. Rosenthal is a California-based artist whose paintings and photographs use color the way writers use language—to tell stories, stir memory, and evoke feeling. Influenced by Milton Avery’s emotional restraint and Katherine Bradford’s intuitive, luminous surfaces, Rosenthal works with pared-down forms and atmospheric palettes in which pale blues suggest distance, ochres hold stillness, and dusty pinks feel like memory. His visual language reflects a life spent deeply inside the art world. Rosenthal began making art in the 1970s, studying at CalArts with John Baldessari, Allan Kaprow, and Nam June Paik, alongside classmates like Eric Fischl, Ross Bleckner, and David Salle. He went on to support artists as a designer, curator, and founder of Michael Rosenthal Contemporary Art, a San Francisco gallery known for its thoughtful exhibitions and support of emerging voices. For decades, Rosenthal — like many gallerists — kept his own work private, choosing instead to elevate the work of others. Now, at 78, he has returned fully to his studio. The result is a personal collection of paintings and photographs developed quietly over many years — now being shared publicly for the first time. Each piece reflects a distilled, honest approach to image-making: spacious, emotional, and made with a long view in mind.