Robert Natkin
(1930 – 2010)
Born in Chicago in 1930, Robert Natkin was known for his brightly colored canvases filled with playful forms recalling the work of Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee. After studying at the Art Institute of Chicago, Natkin lived briefly in New York, before returning to Chicago where he began his important Apollo series. The artist would go on to create work in thematic series including the Field Mouse series, the Bath Series, the Intimate Lighting Series, and the Hitchcock series. In 1959, Natkin and his wife Judy Dolnick, moved to New York where he began to show with the Poindexter Gallery. Museum recognition soon followed in 1960 when he was included in the Whitney Museum exhibition, “Americans Under 35.” Beginning in 2004 he was represented by the David Findlay Jr. Gallery (now Findlay Galleries) showing in solo exhibitions in 2004, 2006, and 2008.
Museum Exhibitions
2003 The Butler Institute of American Art/Trumbull, Youngstown, OH
1997 The Butler Institute of American Art/Trumbull, Youngstown, OH
1992 Winchester Cathedral, England
1990 Springfield Museum, MO
1985 FIAC, Grand Palais, Paris, France
1983 Tokyo Ginza Art Center, Tokyo Japan
1983 Nagoya Art Center, Nagoya, Japan
1982 Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, Connecticut
1981 Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.
1976 Retrospective at Moore College of Art Gallery
1976 Retrospective at the Kansas City Art Institute
1969 Retrospective at the San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA
Selected Collections
The Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio
Brooklyn Museum, New York
Centre Pompidou, Paris
Duke University Museum of Art, Durham, North Carolina
San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, California
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.
Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Milwaukee Art Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
The Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, North Carolina
Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Museum of Art, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania
Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island
Museum of Art, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Oklahoma Art Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, California
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut
The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts