Robert Natkin
Painter Robert Natkin was known for his lyrical abstract forms, applied in vivid, Post-Impressionist-inspired colors. He used both a paintbrush and palette knife to apply his bright acrylic paints to his canvas, sometimes also using cloths or netting as stencils. Though he made a number of series based on popular culture, like Hitchcock’s films and jazz, he declined to think of his work as deliberately narrative. “I sew together fragments of cloth unaware of the dress I’m sewing, unaware of its final look and function,” he once said. On occasion, his subjects were figural; a late series featured abstract heads and busts. Natkin was also famously mischievous. Among his other antics, his daughter recounted an instance in which Natkin licked a Vermeer painting at the Frick Collection when no one was looking.
Natkin's work is exhibited in numerous permanent collections, including the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York; the San Diego Museum of Art; The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York; Centre Pompidou in Paris, France; Duke University Museum of Art in Durham, North Carolina; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio; The Art Institute of Chicago; The Brooklyn Museum of Art; …
Painter Robert Natkin was known for his lyrical abstract forms, applied in vivid, Post-Impressionist-inspired colors. He used both a paintbrush and palette knife to apply his bright acrylic paints to his canvas, sometimes also using cloths or netting as stencils. Though he made a number of series based on popular culture, like Hitchcock’s films and jazz, he declined to think of his work as deliberately narrative. “I sew together fragments of cloth unaware of the dress I’m sewing, unaware of its final look and function,” he once said. On occasion, his subjects were figural; a late series featured abstract heads and busts. Natkin was also famously mischievous. Among his other antics, his daughter recounted an instance in which Natkin licked a Vermeer painting at the Frick Collection when no one was looking.
Natkin's work is exhibited in numerous permanent collections, including the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York; the San Diego Museum of Art; The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York; Centre Pompidou in Paris, France; Duke University Museum of Art in Durham, North Carolina; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio; The Art Institute of Chicago; The Brooklyn Museum of Art; The Albright-Knox Gallery in Buffalo, New York; and more. He has had solo shows internationally, at galleries including David Findlay Jr. Fine Art Gallery in New York; Harmon-Meek Gallery in Naples; Gimpel Fils Gallery in London; Tokyo Ginza Art Center, Tokyo; Klonaridis Gallery, Toronto; Gimpel-Hanover & André Emmerich Galerien in Zurich; and countless others.
Courtesy of Robert Fontaine Gallery
Akron Art Institute, Akron, OH
The Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY
The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
The Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, NY
Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, FL
The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH
Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
The Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH
Duke University Museum of Art, Durham, NC
Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, MA
The Joseph H. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC
Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, IL
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
The Milwaukee Art Center, Milwaukee, WI
The Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC
Museum of Art, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
The Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia
New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT
Oklahoma Art Center, Oklahoma City, OK
San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA
San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
University of Oklahoma Museum of Art, Norma, OK
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA
Robert Fontaine Gallery
