Remembering abstract painter Robert Natkin

28 April 2010
Robert Natkin, Beyond Kaddish - He is Risen, 1999, acrylic on canvas, 79 x 86 inches.

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Robert Natkin, Beyond Kaddish - He is Risen, 1999, acrylic on canvas, 79 x 86 inches.

Robert Natkin (b. 1930), whose bold paintings expertly melded the abstract style of artists like Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky with vibrant post-impressionist colors reminiscent of Henri Matisse, passed away in Connecticut on April 20.

In the late 1960s and 1970s, Chicago-born Natkin rose to prominence for his bright, large-scale canvases.

In a 1979 New York Times profile, Natkin recalled his life in the studio: “It’s full of the voices of my paintings,” he said, “of all the victories and defeats I’ve known there.”




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