| Robert Cottingham (1935 - )
Robert
Cottingham is of a generation of new 20th century painters,
who in finding themselves confronted with the 19th century rival
of painting, photography, successfully assimulated photography
into their work. This movement in art became known as Photo
Realism. It developed quietly during the early 1960's and emerged
as the predominant style in the 'Documenta 5' 1972 in Kassel,
Germany, an international exhibition that is one of the most
important in the world. Malcom Morley, Robert Cottingham, Robert
Bechtle, John Clemente Clark, Richard McClean, Ralph Goings
and John Kacere are among the luminaries of this international
style. The majority of the artists, as one might expect, are
American.
Cottingham, as most photo realists, uses the
photograph as a sketch book of his visual imagery. The 'Documenta
5' in Kassel appropriately call the show of photo-realism 'questioning
reality'. This sums up the attitude and questions that have
arisen out of Photo Realism.
The Photo Realist posture towards photography
is usually neutral. However, Cottingham's adds his very personal
framed views of the New York City he grew up in and turns his
visual reporting to re-code them into a visual language where
letters, words and scraps of images penetrate beyond the eyes
of the viewer and lodge in the mind and heart. Cottingham is
fascinated by the power of various combinations of lettering
that appear as advertisements on the streets of our community.
These familar and seemingly ordinary symbols epitomize the brash,
bold American way of life and free enterprise. Cottingham successfully
employes compositional devices that add interest to his urban
images. His concerm for formalist abstraction encourages the
viewer to focus on the play of light and the passage of time
through his work as he records a sympathetic detachment to the
phenomon of the 20th century urban landscape.
INDIVIDUAL SHOWS
- 1968
- Molly Barnes Gallery, Los Angeles, California
- 1969
- Molly Barnes Gallery, Los Angeles, California
- 1970
- Molly Barnes Gallery, Los Angeles, California
- 1971
- O.K. Harris Gallery, New York
- 1974
- 0. K. Harris Gallery, New York
- 1975
- 1975
- Galerie de Gestlo, Hamburg, Germany
- 1976
- O.K. Harris Gallery, New York
- 1976
- John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, California
- 1977
- Landfall Press Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
- 1978
- Morgan Gallery, Kansas City, Missouri
- 1978
- Bethel Art Gallery, Bethel, Connecticut
- 1978
- 0. K. Harris Gallery, New York
- 1978
- Ohio State Fair, Columbus
- 1979
- Aldrich Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut
- 1979
- Beaver College, Glenside, Pennsylvania
- 1979
- Landfall Press Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
- 1979
- Galerie de Gestlo, Cologne, Germany
- 1979
- Delta Gallery, Rotterdam, Netherlands
COLLECTIVE EXHIBITIONS
- 1976
- Paintings, Drawings and Prints, University of Texas
at Austin, Texas (from the John L. Paxton collection)
- 1976
- Works on Paper, Galerie de Gestlo, Hamburg, Germany
- 1977
- Illusion and Reality, Australian Touring Exhibition
Australian National Gallery, Canberra;
- Western Australian Art Gallery, Perth
- Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
- Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
- Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
- Tasmanian Museum and Art ,Gallery, Hobart
- 1977
- Masters of Watercolor, O.K. Harris Gallery, New York,
N.Y
- 1977
- Landfall Press-Survey of Prints 1970-1977, Museum of
Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois
- 1977
- Recent Acquisitions, Whitney Museum of American Art,
New York, New York
- 1977
- Recent Acquisitions, Hi rsh horn Museum and Sculpture
Garden, Washington, D.C.
- 1977
- Recent Acquisitions, Rhode Island School of Design,
Providence, Rhode Island
- 1977
- New in the 70's, University of Texas at Austin, Texas
- 1977
- American Prints of the Twentieth Century, Philadelphia
Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pa.
- 1977-78
- Photo-Realism in Painting, Hollywood Art and Culture
Center, Hollywood, Florida
- Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida
- 1978
- Art About Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York,
New York
- 1978
- Super-Realism, Concordia College, Seward, Nebraska
- 1978
- Current Work from New York, Slippery Rock State Col
Slippery Rock, Pa.
- 1978
- Watercolor U.S.A. 1978, Springfield Art Museum, Springfield,
Missouri
- 1978
- New Acquisitions, Whitney Museum of American Art, New
York, N.Y.
- 1978
- Museum of Drawers, Herbert Distel (traveling exhibit)
- 1978
- Watercolors, Thomas Segal Gallery, Boston, Mass.
- 1978
- Late 20th Century Art From the Sydney & Frances L. Foundation,
Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Va.
- Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Penn. Phila.,
Pa.
- 1978
- New Editions From Landfall Press Inc. G.W. Einstein
Gallery, New York, N.Y
- 1979
- Prospectus-Art in The Seventies, Aldrich Museum Contemporary
Art, Ridgefield, Conn.
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