Robert Cottingham is a internationally renowned as one of America's most important photo-realist painters. He established himself in the early 1970’s among such renowned artists as Richard Estes and Chuck Close. Born in Brooklyn in 1935, he studied at Pratt Institute and began a brief career in Graphic Design, which later inspired him with his painting of American urban signage.
Robert Cottingham lives and works on an eighteenth century New England farm, but the subject matter he paints is strictly urban Americana. Tattoo parlors, seamy bar fronts, five-and-dime stores, trashy movie marquees, or the advertising on a pancake house are all the urban symbols he utilizes to construct his complex paintings. He ferrets out the architectural details, symbols, and letter fragments of facades, giving us a glimpse of a true American folk art; garish.
He uses his camera as a sketchbook and for him printmaking is "a great aid in painting because it continually gives him new insights into technique." Over the years he has tended to work in series: buildings, signs, words, numbers, letters, railroad imagery, and most recently, typewriters.