robert cottingham acrylics typography letters
See how his work appears in the Forum Gallery at the Four Seasons Hotel. Its at around 2:40 mark, a great machinery painting with great design and composition.
Show the artist was in taking place in 2009 at the Duetsche Guggenheim. Interviews with some of the finest photorealist painters ever.
Mediums used: graphite, watercolor, gouache, acrylics, oils, linocuts, etchings, aquatints
surfaces used: canvas, paper
The artist is very diverse in his output. His high level of drawings skills are apparent when you see his linocuts. To make images come to life its necessary to see them in only light and dark tones. His machinery pieces and those works of typewriters are phenomenal for their detail and fantastic realism.
Artist was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1935. Now lives in Connecticut.
Received B.F.A. from Pratt. Has taught at the collegiate level. Served in the military in the late 1950s.
This artist is who finally got me to realize the art and design involved in typography. A great painter of realism in a variety of media. If you do some research on artists who make words their subject be sure and check out Mel Bochner, Teri Martin(she has many many posters on the market with words and color only), Mary Noble, and Denis Brown http://www.quillskill.com . All are great artists whose line work is magnificent. In an era where we don’t even teach our grade school kids how to write cursive, please take some time to research letter artists. Next time you see a greeting card, see if you can find out who is made the calligraphy inside! Art is everwhere, just look slowly!
Two galleries for the artist are the Sims Reed Gallery http://www.artnet.com/galleries/artists_detail.asp?G=&gid=160392&which=&aid=4486&ViewArtistBy=online&rta=http://www.artnet.com/artists/robert-cottingham/artworks-for-sale
The Forum Gallery http://forumgallery.com/artist/robert-cottingham/
Low price range for one of a series of 500 prints is $80. It was done to promote the theater in Alabama where Rosa Parks was arrested and is titled “Empire.” The artist is a master printer and has several editions out of his works. If you wanted to you could collect the entire alphabet. A to Z using letters found in business signs.
High price price range at auction with buyers premium of 17.3% was 133,000 for a picture called pool car. Its the first pictured in the paintings section. The size is quite large at 84 by 57 inches. I would love to see it in person as it was painted in acrylics with sand. I had never seen that mixture before!
Americana is portrayed greatly by this artist. To me the computer generated “McDonalds” type sign doesn’t have anything on the old flashy neon lights you might have seen in Vegas over the years! He is great at capturing the essence of his subject.
Look also at his great use of complimentary colors to bring extra life into the “boring” art of writing! I love to write and do it daily!
All of the works in the gallery were painted with acrylics. But the artist has many different outlets doing many series of prints.
Try a piece of art using fancy handwritten letters. Try to design something with an “S” pattern. Its harder than you think!
Happy painting!
D
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