Robert Natkin

Untitled

1976

This is a monotype with the use of etching and lithography, signed and dated on the reverse.

Untitled XLVII is an abstract painting by French contemporary artist Ferle. Oil on free-standing canvas. W 140 cm x H 200 cm // W 55 in. x H 78 3/4 in. ”In her work, Ferle creates n...

Line 1213-13 is an abstract painting by contemporary Korean artist Ahn Hyun-Ju. Polyester, acrylic and epoxy on aluminum, 52 x 32 cm. Signed, sold unframed...

Untitled XXXIV is an abstract painting by French contemporary artist Ferle. Oil on free-standing canvas, W 140 cm x H 200 cm // W 55 in. x H 78 3/4 in. ”In her work, Ferle creates ne...

Untitled LXIV (2015) by French contemporary artist Frédérique Domergue. Oxidized zinc and bronze leaves on a wood panel, 100 cm × 100 cm. Through polishing and oxidation, the artist ...

Untitled LX is an abstract painting by French contemporary artist Ferle. Oil on free-standing canvas, W 140 cm x H 200 cm // W 55 in. x H 78 3/4 in. ”In her work, Ferle creates new s...

This prisoner of war bone wall panel has a central roundel depicting Charles I and four of his closest advisors, William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, George Villers, Duke of Buckingham...

A very fine oil on canvas of Sir John Pettus ,circle of Mary Beale 17th century Wearing a red cloak and a black tunic with white collar. His coat of arms to the right. Housed in a gilt frame, the size overall being 85 x 74 cm whilst the painting is 76 x 63.5cm In overall excellent condition. There is a wealth of history about the sitter online , below is a brief resume John Pettus Sir John Pettus (1613–1690) was an English royalist, politician and natural philosopher. Pettus was an expert on metallurgy and became a deputy governor of the royal mines in England and Wales under Charles I and II. He is known for the first English translation of the work of the German metallurgist Lazarus Ercker. Pettus’s grandfather was a wealthy Norwich merchant ,he purchased the manor of Rackheath in 1590 and represented the city in 1601 and 1604-10. Although a younger son, Pettus inherited the manors of Chediston and Wenhaston, He married well; but even before the Civil War most of his estate was mortgaged, and his wife’s expectations were never realized, owing to her father’s misfortunes as leader of the City Royalists. Pettus became a servant to Charles I, and took part in the farcical royalist attempt on Lowestoft in March 1643, but was exchanged after nearly a year in prison. It is unlikely that he resumed command of his regiment, such as it was, since he ‘continued inoffensive till the taking of Bristol’ by the New Model Army...

Fine Portrait of a lady standing in a landscape wearing a white satin dress and holding a posy of flowers. Manner of Sir Godfrey Kneller (1646-172...

18th/early 19th century oil on canvas portrait of a lady dressed as Diana the Huntress holding a bow and arrow, a dog by her side, housed in a gilt frame. The size overall is 65 cm x...

Portrait Circle of Sir Godfrey Kneller Bt. (British, 1646-1723) of Katharine, wife of Thomas, 6th Earl of Westmorland, oil on canvas late 17th early 18th century in date. The sitter Katharine is facing dexter and is wearing a cream dress, blue and gold cloak and lace mantilla...

Described as the “author of a dappled infinite,” Robert Natkin created some of the most innovative color abstractions of the late twentieth century (Carter Ratcliff, “The Dappled Infinite,” Art & Antiques 38 [December 2015]). Populated by stripes, dots, grids, and an array of free-floating forms, his light- filled canvases are sensuous, playful, and visually complex, representing “a unique formal universe of unparalleled beauty” (Louis A. Zona, “Foreword: Robert Natkin: Crescendos of Whispers,” in Robert Natkin: A Retrospective, 1952–1996, exhib. cat. [Youngstown, Ohio: Butler Institute of American Art, 1997]). Born in Chicago, Natkin was the son of Russian-Jewish immigrant parents who worked in the garment industry. At age five, he began going to the movies (often six times a week), an activity that, in addition to providing him with a measure of respite from his dysfunctional family, would later profoundly influence his work as a painter. In 1945, Natkin’s family moved briefly to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, where Natkin decided to pursue a career as an artist. A natural draftsman, he initially wanted to become an illustrator, like Norman Rockwell, whose work he had seen in the Saturday Evening Post. However, while attending the school of the Art Institute of Chicago from 1948 to 1952, Natkin was afforded the opportunity to study the museum’s world-class collection of French post-impressionist art and decided to turn his attention to painting instead. During these formative years, Natkin was inspired by the examples of Pierre Bonnard and Henri Matisse, who used decorative patterning and arbitrary color to evoke mood. Most importantly, he also discovered the work of Paul Klee, the Swiss- German artist whose whimsical, semi-abstract paintings reflected his belief that “art does not reproduce the visible but makes visible”––a credo that nurtured Natkin’s burgeoning interest in emotional content. As a student, Natkin was also a frequent visitor to the Field Museum of Natural History, where he was attracted to the stylized shapes of American Indian art and Peruvian textiles. An article on Abstract Expressionism, published in Life magazine in 1949, was equally vital in determining Natkin’s evolution as a painter. In 1952, he lived briefly in New York, where he saw and was influenced by the bold canvases of Willem de Kooning. Following this, Natkin spent a few months in San Francisco before returning to Chicago, where he worked at the Newberry Library while painting in his spare time. He initially focused on portraits and expressionist figure pieces, but by 1954–55 he was producing his earliest abstract work and fraternizing with a group of artists that included the painter Judith Dolnick (b. 1934), whom he married in 1957. In the same year, Natkin and Dolnick established the Wells Street Gallery in a dilapidated storefront in Chicago’s Old Town, where they exhibited their own work as well as that of other progressive-minded local artists, among them the sculptor John Chamberlain and the photographer Aaron Siskind, as well as painters from New York, including de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko. Although Natkin never embraced the concept of “action painting” as exemplified in the work of Pollock, he did, for a time, explore de Kooning’s agitated, gestural brushwork, as apparent in canvases such as Keep It Quiet (1957; private collection, formerly Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York). (For Natkin’s Chicago period, see Robert Natkin in Chicago: The 1950s, exhib. cat. [Chicago: McCormick Gallery, 2015]). In 1959, aware of the limited patronage for abstract art in Chicago, Natkin and Dolnick moved to New York, where Natkin joined the stable of artists associated with the Poindexter Gallery, known for its support of emerging painters and sculptors. On the occasion of his début exhibition at Elinor F. Poindexter’s gallery in late 1959, the critic Dore Ashton praised the “bright, experimental boldness” of Natkin’s paintings and observed that he “obviously enjoys attacking a large canvas, filling its field with many forms and many colors, making them glide and slip, before and behind, each other” (“Natkin’s Avant-Garde Paintings on View,” New York Times, January 7, 1960). Natkin’s reputation in Manhattan art circles was further enhanced when he was included in the exhibition, Americans Under 35, held at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1960. Immersed in the dynamism of the New York art world, where Abstract Expressionism and Color- Field painting were the dominant styles of the day, Natkin’s aesthetic approach continued to evolve. In 1961, he adopted a serial approach to painting, a practice he would adhere to throughout his career. (For an overview of the salient characteristics of Natkin’s serial work, see Robert Natkin: A Retrospective: 1952–1996.) In his earliest cycle, known as the Apollo series, which Natkin worked on intermittently into the early 1970s, he used vertical stripes of varying thicknesses and textures to suggest the interplay of color and light while creating a strong architectonic quality, as apparent in works such as Beatrice (1964; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra). During the mid-1960s––in response to the color theories of Josef Albers, contemporary jazz, and his admiration for Chicago architects such as Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright––Natkin retained the upright format of his Apollo paintings...

Robert Natkin Untitled, ca. 1979 Monotype with heart drawing Hand signed twice; inscribed to Dorothy and Arthur with text and heart Unique Original vi...

"Up Here Down There" by JR, Oliver Jeffers. 2016. Hand embellished lithograph in colours on 270 grm BFK Rives paper 28.9 x 20.3 inches unframed (ple...

Richard Bosman Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbors Goods (The Tenth Commandment), 1987 2 Color Lithograph with hand coloring on Dieu Donne handmade paper 24 × 18 inches Unframed Signed and numbered 76/84; with unique hand-coloring. Unframed Created as part of the 1987 portfolio "The Ten Commandments", in which ten top Jewish American artists were each invited to choose an Old Testament commandment to interpret in contemporary lithographic form. The "Chosen" artists were, in order of Commandment: Kenny Scharf, Joseph Nechvatal...

Mixed media with acrylic painting and color lithography on paper. Hand-signed in acrylic by the artist. A unique variation. Artwork sheet size 24 x 18 in. Custom framed as pictured. ...

Mixed media with acrylic painting and color lithography on paper. Hand-signed in acrylic by the artist. A unique variation. Artwork sheet size 24 x 18 inches. Custom framed as pictur...