Sir Norman Rosenthal is a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 curator

Curator

A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...

. He was Exhibitions Secretary at the Royal Academy

Royal Academy

The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...

 from 1977 until 2008. His encyclopedic programme of exhibitions which stretched from Egyptian antiquities to recent art production, included the exhibition of Charles Saatchi's collection of contemporary art—Sensation (art exhibition) which showcased many of the YBA artists.

Life and career

Rosenthal was born in Cambridge to refugee parents. He graduated from the University of Leicester with a degree in history and undertook further studies at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies and the Free University of Berlin

Free University of Berlin

Freie Universität Berlin is one of the leading and most prestigious research universities in Germany and continental Europe. It distinguishes itself through its modern and international character. It is the largest of the four universities in Berlin. Research at the university is focused on the...

.

Rosenthal was first introduced to curating exhibitions at the age of 19 when he co-organized an exhibit entitled Artists in Cornwall at the Museum and Art Gallery as part of the University of Leicester

University of Leicester

The University of Leicester is a research-led university based in Leicester, England. The main campus is a mile south of the city centre, adjacent to Victoria Park and Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College....

's University Arts Festival. His first serious post was as researcher and librarian at Thomas Agnew & Sons. As Exhibitions Secretary, he directed many ground breaking and successful exhibitions. Some of his most important works include the exhibition A New Spirit in Painting, which brought to the forefront work by Georg Baselitz

Georg Baselitz

Georg Baselitz is a German painter who studied in the former East Germany, before moving to what was then the country of West Germany...

 and Anselm Kiefer

Anselm Kiefer

Anselm Kiefer is a German painter and sculptor. He studied with Joseph Beuys and Peter Dreher during the 1970s. His works incorporate materials such as straw, ash, clay, lead, and shellac...

, and a cycle of survey exhibitions of 20th century work that promoted the academy to the first division of exhibition venues. As Exhibitions Secretary, Rosenthal has often courted controversy. His staging of Sensation

Sensation exhibition

Sensation was an exhibition of the collection of contemporary art owned by Charles Saatchi, including many works by Young British Artists, which first took place 18 September – 28 December 1997 at the Royal Academy of Art in London and later toured to Berlin and New York...

drew protests from Academicians. After the Royal Academy, Norman worked with Thomas Krens

Thomas Krens

Thomas Krens is the former director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in New York City, and currently the Guggenheim's Senior Advisor for International Affairs, overseeing the completion of the Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim Abu Dhabi...

on several projects and with other artist colleagues.