Norman Rosenthal (born 1944) is a British curator. The child of Jewish refugees from Nazi occupied Europe Rosenthal grew up in North London. After studying history at Leicester University he took a job for an art dealer and for a time was Exhibitions Officer at the Institute of Contemporary Arts where he promoted new work from Germany. While at the ICA Rosenthal in one incident was beaten up by the comedian Keith Allen.

In 1979 he was appointed Exhibitions Secretary at the Royal Academy. In this position he curated with Nicholas Serota the exhibition "A New Spirit in Painting" that brought to the forefront work by Georg Baselitz and Anselm Kiefer. Rosenthal also initiated a cycle of survey exhibitions of 20th Century work that promoted the Academy to the first division of exhibition venues. In 1986 Rosenthal lost out to Serota for the job of Director of the Tate Gallery.

Living people | British curators