ROBERT NATKIN (Chicago, b. 1930) Oil on Canvas Painting (1970s)

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ARTIST: Robert Natkin (Chicago, b. 1930) DATE: 1970sDIMENSIONS: 21"h x 18"wMEDIUM/MATERIALS: Oil on canvas, original wood frame CONDITION: Fresh and clean; no damage 1930Born in Chicago. Grows up in extended Russian-Jewish immigrant family. As a child, goes to movies up to six times a week.1945Parents move briefly to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where Natkin decides he wants to become an artist.1948-1952Studies at the Art School of the Art Institute of Chicago where he is strongly influenced by the collection of Post-Impressionist paintings. Encounters Abstract Expressionism in 1949 through an article in Life magazine. Makes frequent visits to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago where he studies decorative arts.1952Lives briefly in New York, deeply influenced by Willem de Kooning's paintings.1953Stays in San Francisco for a couple of months.1953-1957Lives again in Chicago. Distraught, resumes psychotherapeutic treatment. Obtains job in the Newbury Library. Teaches painting classes. Exhibits occasionally in group shows and in one-man studio and shop-front exhibitions. Becomes closely associated with other Chicago artists, including Richard Bogart, Ernest Dieringer, Judith Dolnick, Ann Mattingly, Stanley Sourelis, Ronald Slowinski, Gerald van de Wiele, and Donald Vlack - a loose grouping distinguishable from the "Monster Roster" Chicago expressionists on the one hand and from the Bauhaus-influenced formalists on the other.1957Marries Judith Dolnick. Opens the Wells Street Gallery in Chicago with the work of the above-mentioned group; these artists, including Natkin, are prominent in Chicago's 1957 Momentum exhibition.1958Has one-man show at the Wells Street Gallery.1959Closing of the Wells Street Gallery. In January Natkin moves to New York where he begins exhibiting with the Pointdexter Gallery.1960Birth of son, J.P. Included in the Young America exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.1961First emergence of characteristic Apollo , that is, markedly vertical-pictorial organization.1962Included in several group exhibitions. Birth of daughter, Leda.1962-1964Efflorescence of the early Apollo painting series.1964Appointment as artist-in-residence, Kalamazoo Arts Center. This is a disturbed period in the artist's life, characterized in his painting by the eruption of markedly symmetrical organizations.1965In part under the influence of jazz singers-especially women vocalists like Nina Simone and Billie Holliday-Natkin produces a series of hard-edged, architectural Apollos and grid paintings, although the freer varieties do not disappear altogether. Grids persist until circa 1969. Teaches at the Pratt Institute.1967Begins Field Mouse paintings.1968Is included in the exhibition Timeless Paintings from the USA at the Galerie Facchetti, Paris. Makes his first trip to Europe.1969Retrospective solo exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Art.1970Field Mouse series becomes increasingly important in Natkin's work, changing from delicate nuance to much bolder and richer colors and forms. The Natkin family leaves New York to set up home in the country in West Redding, Connecticut.1971Discovers technique of painting with different textured cloths wrapped around sponges. Eruption of the Intimate Lighting series. Is influenced by Cubist exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum. First exhibition with the André Emmerich Gallery, New York.1971-1974Full efflorescence of the Intimate Lighting series.1974Visits England prior to exhibition at the Festival Gallery and Holburne of Menstrie Museum in Bath. Soon after begins the Bath series, involving muting of colors.1975The Face series begins. The Apollos , which have been in abeyance for a number of years, are spectacularly revived. Natkin executes a commission for a giant mural at Baxter Laboratories Corporate Headquarters, Chicago.1976Retrospective exhibition of Natkin's work at Moore College of Art Gal... read more

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