United States
• 1935
- 2024
Biography
Robert Moskowitz (1935–2024) was a major American painter, recognized for his role as a bridge between Abstract Expressionism, Minimalism, and Pop Art, and as a central figure in the New Image Painting movement of the 1970s. Born in Brooklyn, he studied at the Pratt Institute under Adolph Gottlieb. In 1959, he moved to an artist community near London, where he began incorporating real objects—such as window shades—into his canvases, inaugurating his iconic Window Shade Paintings series. These works were featured in the landmark exhibition The Art of Assemblage at the MoMA in 1961, followed by a solo show at the Leo Castelli Gallery in 1962.
Moskowitz became known for his simplified silhouettes of familiar symbols—New York skyscrapers, Rodin's The Thinker, red crosses, swimmers—set against monochrome backgrounds, creating a striking tension between abstraction and figuration. His work Swimmer (1977), depicting a partially submerged figure in deep blue, evokes a haunting sense of loss and enigma.
His art was exhibited in leading institutions including the Whitney Museum (New Image Painting, 1978), the Hirshhorn Museum (retrospective in 1989), the MoMA, the Walker Art Center, and Kunsthalle Basel. He also taught at the Maryland Institute College of Art, the School of Visual Arts in New York, and was an artist-in-residence at the American Academy in Rome in 2001.
Notable solo exhibitions include Window Shades 1959–62 at the Craig Starr Gallery (2018), Paintings and Drawings from Four Decades at Peter Freeman, Inc. (2024), and Paintings and Works on Paper 1995–2004 at the Peter Blum Gallery (2005). His accolades include a Guggenheim Fellowship (1967) and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (1975).
Robert Moskowitz passed away on March 24, 2024, in Manhattan from complications related to Parkinson's disease. His artistic legacy, marked by a poetic exploration of imagery and memory, continues to resonate throughout the contemporary art world.
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