BIOGRAPHY
A painter of intensely colorful abstraction, Robert Natkin’s work often runs in series he created using columns, grids and shifting planes that include this early jazz oriented example titled Coltrane. These works, with vertical stripes alternating between thick and thin, decorative and textured, are cheerful and light, invoking a specific lyricism. His painting is inspired by the color used by Henri Matisse and Pierre Bonnard, and the Cubism of Paul Klee.
Natkin was born in Chicago and graduated from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1952. He married painter Judith Dolnick and they lived in Chicago where Natkin and a friend opened the Wells Street Gallery to give young Chicago artists a chance to market their artwork. The gallery operated from 1957 to 1959.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2006 David Findlay JR Fine Art, New York
2004 David Findlay JR Fine Art, New York
Flanders, Minneapolis
2003 The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio
2002 Kouros Gallery, New York
2001 Muscarelle Museum of Art, College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia
Thomas McCormick Gallery, Chicago
2000 Harmon-Meek Gallery, Naples (with Judith Dolnick)
Friedrich Müller, Frankfurt, Germany
1999 Douglas Flanders Gallery, Minneapolis
Paul Mellon Arts Center Gallery, Choate Rosemary Hall, Wallington, Connecticut
Theo Waddington Fine Art, Boca Raton, Florida
The Reece Galleries, Inc., New York
1997 The Butler Institute of American Art (retrospective), Trumbull County Branch, Youngstown, Ohio
The Reece Galleries, Inc., New York
Thomas McCormick Gallery, Chicago
1994 Harmon-Meek Gallery, Naples
1992 Gimpel Fils Gallery, London
Winchester Cathedral, England
1990 Gimpel Fils Gallery, London
Springfield Museum, Springfield, Missouri
1989 Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer Gallery, New York
Miller Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio
1987 Bradley University, Peoria, Illinois
Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer Gallery, New York
Watson Gallery, Houston
55 Mercer Street Gallery, New York
1986 Emily Edwards Gallery, San Antonio, Texas
1985 Brenda Kroos Gallery, Columbus, Ohio
FIAC, Grand Palais, Paris
Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer Gallery, New York
Helander-Rubinstein Gallery, Palm Beach
Hoshour Gallery, Albuquerque
Klonaridis Gallery, Toronto
The Watson Gallery, Houston
1984 Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer Gallery, New York
Gimpel Fils Gallery, London
Gloria Luria Gallery, Miami
Hoshour Gallery, Albuquerque
Ivory/Kimpton Gallery, Santa Monica, California
Tortue Gallery, Santa Monica, California
1983 Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus
Nagoya Art Center, Nagoya
Tokyo Ginza Art Center, Tokyo
1982 Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art (retrospective), Ridgefield, Connecticut
Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer Gallery, New York
Ivory/Kimpton Gallery, San Francisco
Rosenberg Fine Art, Toronto
Styria Studio, New York
1981 Douglas Drake Gallery, Kansas City
Gimpel Fils Gallery, London
Gimpel-Hanover & André Emmerich Galerien, Zurich
Gloria Luria Gallery, Miami
GMB Gallery, Detroit
Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington
Hoshour Gallery, Albuquerque
Styria Studio, New York
Tortue Gallery, Santa Monica
1980 Art of Man, Sydney, Australia
Gimpel Fils Gallery, London
Ivory/Kimpton Gallery, San Francisco
Manus Presse GmbH, Stuttgart, Germany
Styria Studio, New York
1979 Art Bureau Cheneau DeLille, Paris
Diane Gilson Gallery, Seattle
FIAC, Grand Palais, Paris
Galerie Brusberg, Hanover, Germany
Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer Gallery, New York
Hokin Gallery, Chicago
Hoshour Gallery, Albuquerque
Thomas Segal Gallery, Boston
Tortue Gallery, Santa Monica, California
1978 André Emmerich Gallery, New York
Douglas Drake Gallery, Kansas City
Galerie Pudelko, Bonn
Hoshour Gallery, Albuquerque
1977 Galerie André Emmerich, Zurich
Gimpel Fils Gallery, London
1976 André Emmerich Gallery, New York
Douglas Drake Gallery, Kansas City
Galerie André Emmerich, Zurich
Gimpel Fils Gallery, London
Kansas City Art Institute, Charlotte Crosby Kemper Gallery (retrospective), Kansas City
Moore College of Art Gallery (retrospective), Philadelphia
1975 The Art Institute of Chicago
Fairweather-Hardin Gallery, Chicago
Gertrude Kastle Gallery, Detroit
Hokin Gallery, Chicago
Hokin Gallery, Palm Beach
Linda Farris Gallery, San Francisco
Makler Gallery, Philadelphia
William Sawyer Gallery, San Francisco
1974 André Emmerich Gallery, New York
Galerie André Emmerich, Zurich
Galleria d’Arte Moderna-Ravagnan, Venice
Galerie Merian, Krefeld, Germany
Gertrude Kastle Gallery, Detroit
Holburne of Menstrie Museum and Festival Gallery, Bath
Il Cerchio, Milan
Makler Gallery, Philadelphia
William Sawyer Gallery, San Francisco
1973 Hokin Gallery, Palm Beach
André Emmerich Gallery, New York
1971 André Emmerich Gallery, New York
1970 Pointdexter Gallery, New York
1969 San Francisco Museum of Art (retrospective 1952-1969)
1968 Pointdexter Gallery, New York
1965 Fair Weather-Hardin Gallery. Chicago
Pointdexter Gallery, New York
1964 Kalamazoo Art Center, Kalamazoo, Michigan
1963 Fair Weather-Hardin Gallery. Chicago
Pointdexter Gallery, New York
1961 Ferus Gallery, Los Angeles
Pointdexter Gallery, New York
1959 Pointdexter Gallery, New York
1958 Wells Street Gallery, Chicago
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Akron Art Institute, Akron, Ohio
The Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
The Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York
Boca Raton Museum of Art, Boca Raton, Florida
The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio
Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
The Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio
Duke University Museum of Art, Durham, North Carolina
Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts
The Joseph H. Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC
Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, Illinois
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Milwaukee Art Center, Wisconsin
The Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, North Carolina
Museum of Art, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island
The Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia
New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut
Oklahoma Art Center, Oklahoma City
San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego
San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
University of Oklahoma Museum of Art, Norma, Oklahoma
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts