Self Portrait as the Virgin Mary

Michael Rosenthal (American, b. 1946, California)
Self Portrait as the Virgin Mary, 2008
Fabric, stuffing, photo transfer, mixed media
18 × 8 × 8 in.

Rosenthal studied at CalArts in the 1970s with John Baldessari, Allan Kaprow, and Nam June Paik. He ran Michael Rosenthal Contemporary Art gallery in San Francisco.

A soft sculpture — Rosenthal's face photo-transferred onto a fabric figure of the Virgin Mary. Part devotional object, part self-deprecating joke. The piece sits at the intersection of pop art and folk craft, handmade and conceptually sharp. From the same impulse that produced Warhol's celebrity portraits, but filtered through a sewing machine and a sense of humor.