Robert Cottingham

Rialto, from American Signs

2009

Robert Cottingham is an American painter best known for his Photorealist depictions of cropped commercial signage. Born on September 26, 1935, in Brooklyn, NY, Cottingham studied at Pratt Institute. He received his BFA in 1963 before starting a five-year career in commercial advertising. Upon moving to Los Angeles, Cottingham seriously committed himself to his painting practice, which eventually subsumed his advertising career by 1968 as the artist rose to prominence along with the Photorealist movement. Notably—though Cottingham is considered among the most prominent Photorealists of the latter half of the 20th century—he disavowed his relationship to the movement. Instead, he views his work as part of the lineage of vernacular Americana painters, including the likes of Stuart Davis and Edward Hopper. His work can be found in The Metropolitan Museum of Art collections in New York and the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., among others.