PLEASE JOIN US FOR AN EVENING RECEPTION ON THURSDAY EVENING, MAY 14TH FROM 6 - 8 PM

SPARKLING WINE, SMALL BITES AND GORGEOUS ART WILL BE SERVED

Rosenthal Fine Art is pleased to present eleven glorious paintings as a retrospective of Raffael's later works from1985 to 2020 -- the year before his death in 2021. 

In an interview with Betsy Dillard Stroud, Raffael reveals his process as almost a conversation with mystery. Nancy Hoffman, a well-respected New York dealer who knew Raffael well, was asked by Stroud how she would place Raffael in the contemporary art scene. 

She replied: "I don't think about him in the contemporary scene. It's not a relevant question, because he addresses the issue of beauty. He celebrates nature and stays true to his vision. No one uses watercolor the way he does."



Clearly, Joseph Raffael transcends labeling, which underscores what Kierkegaard wrote: "Labeling me, negates me."

As Betsy Dillard Stroud left Joseph Raffael's world she recalls, "When I think of Raffael's paintings, forms dissolve revealing a new universe of light charged with a confluence of incredible colors perhaps not found in anyone's vocabulary, and I remember what the great theologian Thomas Merton wrote: "The last great mystery to be solved will be the mystery of color."

Surely, the answer to that mystery lies in the paintings of Joseph Raffael as he moves toward the light.