The painter David Rosenthal came to Alaska around fifty years ago, the artist was taken by the sheer beauty of the frozen landscapes. In his time, he’s painted snow, ice as well as glaciers throughout Alaska as well as including the North Pole, Greenland and even Antarctica and has inadvertently captured the changing climate in his brush strokes.
The Cordova-based artist’s showcase, “Painting on the Last Day of the Ice Age “, is a retrospective that puts his artwork within the historical context of the human-caused warming as well as glacial retreat. It seamlessly blends art and science. The exhibition opens on Friday, November. 3, at the Alaska State Museum, followed by a lecture given by Rosenthal.
He met with the KTOO’s Anna Canny to talk about his experiences in capturing the last remaining Alaskan glaciers.
This video interview is edited to improve clarity and length.
Anna Canny: So you’ve been a professional artist for years and have always drawn landscapes. However, as this exhibit demonstrates that you’ve got a passion for icy-looking landscapes. Tell me how you came across the subject?
David Rosenthal: I grew in Maine and where the Ice Age was over. We would always be told about it because you know, we’d be driving through fields with massive boulders all over which my mom and dad would think “Oh, the glacier took these,’ eh? It was a subject I used to consider and was fascinated by. And, of course I was in Maine drawing and painting these pictures. And a few of them were pretty great but I never sold anything. I just graduated with an interdisciplinary diploma, which isn’t a good way to prepare for anything. It was a chance that I was hired at a cannery in Cordova and thought, oh, I’ll simply go there to find work. Since, as you can imagine in comparison to Maine it seemed like a great deal. That’s why I head all the way to South central coast Alaska generally and is surrounded by remnants from the Ice Age. These are all glaciers and icefields and some of them are one of the biggest glaciers of North America. This is the place where I’ve been I have my own playground for many years. That’s why I’m referring to throughout the time I was doing various other things, aside from the ice. However, I think glaciers, ice are as beautiful in their shades and the way the light is reflected off them. It’s just an amazing subject to paint.
Anna Canny Which were your first glacier paintings?
David Rosenthal: Well, in Cordova there are two glaciers Childs as well as Miles, around 52 miles from town. When I first saw it 1977 there was a small space in the brush, and it was possible to observe the glacier’s face. The face active face was about a mile in length and was around 300 feet tall in some places. You could walk out in the afternoon to watch the calving pieces, you know with a diameter of about 200 yards and 300 feet, and it would actually send water across rivers. You had to be cautious and you had to be on the move at times. It was the only way to experience the wonder of the world.
Anna Canny: So you’ve been painting these landscapes clearly, for many years you’ve been painting ice for a long time. When did you begin to realize when taken in all, these paintings tell something about the climate?
David Rosenthal: It was hilarious because I saw everywhere the exhibits and journalists who wrote about the climate crisis, right? Many of them were like ‘Oh I’m so and so having five years on glacier or analyzing this ice, and this glacier has receded 100 meters’, you know, that kind of thing. I’m thinking: you know, I’ve been being a fugitive for the past 40 years with glaciers that have receding 15, 16 miles. In other words, I’ve not been an activist in any way however, there were plenty of occasions when I’d be thinking about the things I was doing and then you’ve been making beautiful pictures, don’t you think? What’s the point is it? It came to me that just a moment and this is my opportunity to do something for someone else.
Anna Canny: I mean and one thing that this exhibit really brings home is the fact that we’re witnessing changes happening so quickly that in a single artist’s lifetime, you’ll see all this.
David Rosenthal: Yeah, yes, you’re aware of this, geological time, my, this is almost 47 years since painting glaciers. In geologic time, it’s not much. With glaciers, however there are important changes. This is one of the most effective ways to demonstrate the changes. It’s also sad because I remember my first few years in Cordova I would just go up during the summer. However, in 1981 I moved to Cordova full-time. A few winter days ago, acquaintances invited me to go on a trip to Saddlebag Glacier. It’s quite small. But the memory of it is permanently etched in my mind. Because you turn this bend in the stream, and are like, there is only this wall of ice. It was also around the solstice. The sun’s yellow light at noon caused the ice to appear amazing in its emerald green. Then in 2018 there’s no ice there, just gravel in the canyon. It’s so depressing to see young people. Like, you used to drive away and watch it calve, or you could hike to miles. But you’re not able to do that now.
