Robert Moskowitz, a painter who distinguished himself on the edge of abstraction and representation by utilising the skyline of New York City, passed away in Manhattan on Sunday. He was 88.
Rise to Prominence
Mr. Moskowitz initially gained widespread recognition for his collage-style paintings, in which he adhered window shades to canvases coated in different tones of off-white paint.
A few of these pieces, which are reminiscent of minimalist Rauschenbergs, were shown in the 1961 exhibition “The Art of Assemblage” at the Museum of Modern Art. Later on, he used envelopes to create a number of similar collages.
After a break painting surreal interiors, Mr. Moskowitz focused on views of empty corners from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s. These paintings again toyed with the boundaries of intelligibility, usually with one colour, occasionally even black on black.
According to New York Times, just before he passed away, Mr. Moskowitz’s gallery, Peter Freeman, Inc., described him in a statement as “a rare bridge between Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism.” They had just recently started to represent him.
Brief Biography
On June 20, 1935, Robert Stephen Moskowitz was born in Brooklyn, the son of Lily (Sandman) Moskowitz, the home’s manager, and Louis Moskowitz, the owner of two dry cleaners. In 1948, his father abandoned the household.
Robert’s mother also occasionally vanished, leaving him to take care of his younger sister. He remembered experiencing ongoing financial instability and, beginning in high school, working a variety of part- and full-time jobs to supplement his income, such as selling socks and working at a Woolworth’s soda counter.
He never thought about going to college, but since he had always enjoyed drawing and his older sister worked for an engineering company, he went to the Mechanics Institute in Manhattan to become a draughtsman.
He was hired in 1954 by Sperry Gyroscope in Lake Success, New York, which was formerly the location of the United Nations on Long Island.
His life transformed when he took studies with artists Robert Richenburg and Adolph Gottlieb at the Pratt Institute of Graphic Design, which Sperry paid for. Before long, he was renting an apartment, going to museums, and giving up his job.
Cause of Death
According to his son Erik Moskowitz, Parkinson’s disease complications were the reason for his hospitalised death.
