Robert Moskowitz (b. 1935, Brooklyn, d. 2024, Manhattan) was a prominent figure of the 1970s New Image Painting group, whose innovative image-making techniques emerged out of the Abstract Expressionism, Pop, and Minimalism movements. From the beginning of his career, Moskowitz’s paintings and drawings defied easy categorization, often depicting pared-down figures and symbols that reflected his personal experiences juxtaposed against stark, gestural backgrounds. By divorcing them from their original context and meaning, Moskowitz’s images seem to exist in a liminal space between time and timelessness, between recognition and abstraction. Nevertheless, he used ubiquitous imagery to render his subjects recognizable to the viewer, allowing them to imbue their own meaning into his representations and participate in his image-making process.
Moskowitz lived and worked in New York. He had solo exhibitions at The Museum of Modern Art, New York (1990); the Art Gallery of Ontario (1989); Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC (1989); and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (1981). His work has been included in group exhibitions at the Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, Nebraska (2022); Cincinnati Museum of Art, Ohio (2021); International Print Center, New York (2019); MoMA PS1, New York (2015); Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Illinois (2012); Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois (2011); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2010); The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2005); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2003); and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (1986). Moskowitz’s work can be found in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois; The Broad, Los Angeles; Dallas Museum of Art, Texas; Denver Art Museum, Colorado; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Illinois; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; and The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.