Four Friends: Works by David Fertig, Robert M. Kulicke, Robert Andrew Parker, and Pam Sheehan

Four Friends

Fertig,

Foreword

The six degrees of separation theory proposes that everyone in the world is connected by a chain of no more than six social ties. In this instance the links happened to unite David Fertig, Robert M. Kulicke, Robert Andrew Parker and Pam Sheehan for our exhibition of Four Friends. Coming from different artistic approaches and foundational backgrounds, their practices and bodies of work unify their pursuit in the genre of American Realism.

While viewing the show, my imagination wanders to this grouping of artists at a local’s only jazz club sitting at a square four-top table filled with lively conversation about various topics such as art history, technical techniques, color exploration or even simply debating the finer points of a filbert brush versus a pointed round brush. Of course, the occasional joke would be volleyed followed by laughs. The next day, their studios, whether indoor or en plein air, would beckon for their return and the magic of creating these beautiful works for us to consume would ensue.

In the following pages is an essay by Sophia St. Claire who elucidates how Fertig, Kulicke, Parker and Sheehan fit within the historical context of American Realism while highlighting their notable and modern interpretations of the movement. I wish to extend my appreciation to Ms. St. Claire for her thoughtful contribution to this catalogue.

Lastly, this exhibition and catalogue could not have been possible without the collaborative effort and support of Greg Flood, Matthew Miller and Gregory Hemming, and for that I express a sincere thank you.

Colleen Casey, Managing Director February 2026

Four Friends and the Realist Tradition

By Sophia St. Claire

The origins of American Realism can be found in the migration of European settlers to North America in the 16th century. Arriving through the Spanish, the French, and later immigrants from the countries now making up the United Kingdom, as well as other European countries, the American Colonial period produced such accomplished painters as Benjamin West, John Singleton Copley, John Trumbull, and Gilbert Stuart. Also making his mark was Charles Wilson Peale, who went on to produce successive generations of artists who played a role in shaping American Art through the 19th century. After the founding of the United States, Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Cole, the Hudson River School painters, Frederick Remmington, George Innes, and Winslow Homer developed and adapted the realist tradition in America to suit a rapidly growing and evolving society. As the country entered the 20th century, Robert Henri and the Ashcan School captured the hustle and bustle of America’s growing cities. Contemporaneous to them, the painter Edward Hopper adapted the genre to the modern era, with a more pared down use of brushstrokes and broader areas of color that, among other things, conveyed the complex psychological challenges of modern life. The tradition has carried forward since Hopper’s arrival, adapting and permutating along the way to the present day.

Among those working in the post-war period of the 20th century, Robert M. Kulicke (19242007) came to painting still lifes hesitantly. While studying with Ferdinand Leger at his Paris Atelier in the late 1940s, Kulicke was so put off by Leger’s emphasis on large-scale, boldly colored compositions that he stopped painting and instead focused on building his career as a framer. Returning to New York, Kulicke set up shop and went on to become one of the most important framers of the 20th century. He not only invented the welded aluminum frame and the wrap around Lucite frame, Kulicke designed the thin profile frames we commonly use today. He also created sensitive period frames for such masterworks as Giotto’s Epiphany at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Leonardo da Vinci’s Ginevra de Benci at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. It was through his activities as a framer, however, that Kulick found the confidence to return to painting. In 1957, World House art gallery brought him 300 paintings by Giorgio Morandi to frame. Through the process of completing this task, Kulick realized that painting modest subjects at an intimate scale was a worthy endeavor for a painter in a era when Abstract Expressionism was the dominant painting movement and Pop Art was just around the corner.

Kulicke’s choice of subject matter for still life was very traditional – flowers, fruits, and especially the solitary pear. Whether executed as small ink and watercolor drawings, soft pastels on textured paper, or in oils on cardboard, canvas, or panel, Kulicke’s hand not

only displayed a deftness in its economy of line and stroke, but also an evocative use of materials. A few quick confident strokes and there appeared the petals of a flower resting in a vase, for example. Kulicke had a deep love of Zen philosophy and Medieval art, which imbued his work with an intimate, interior feeling, as if each image embodied an interior world within him. While Kulicke’s painting style evolved over time, fueled by a desire to explore the possibilities of both the medium and the genre, the feeling of interiority and intimacy was always present.

Among those who surrounded Robert M. Kulicke during his life was his wife Pam Sheehan. Born in 1956 in New York City, Sheehan earned a BFA in Sculpture at the Parsons School of Design in 1974. After graduating, she apprenticed at the Johnson Atelier Technical Institute of Sculpture in Princeton, and later studied figurative sculpture with Angelo Frudakis in Philadelphia and painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. On returning to New York in 1986, she attended classes at the New York Academy of Fine Art and went on to earn her MFA from the Lehman College, CUNY, in 1996. Along the way, she met Robert M. Kulicke, who taught her how to make the aged, gilded frames for which he was well known.

Unlike Kulicke, Pam Sheehan was drawn to painting landscapes in plein air. For her, “the direct experience of seeing and feeling the light and weather” is important to the creation of her paintings. She also intentionally works at small scale so that she can complete a painting in a single sitting, though she sometimes returned to works later on at the studio. The resulting works, here represented by two views of the Hudson River and a scene on a rainy city sidewalk, each capture not a single moment stopped in time, but the layering of multiple moments Sheehan perceived, felt, and experienced while painting what was happening in front of her. They reveal a greater truth about those places, that transcendent experiences of beauty and the sublime can be found anywhere if we slow down and give ourselves permission to stay in one place for more than just a few moments.

Kulicke and Sheehan had an extensive group of friends they had accumulated over the decades they were together. One of their regular companions on trips and at dinner gatherings was David Fertig. David Fertig’s origins are in Philadelphia, where he lives and works today. He earned his BFA from the Philadelphia College of Art in 1967 and afterwards went on to earn his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1972. Despite the radical modern art movements taking place around him – abstract painting, pop art, minimalism, conceptualism, etc. – Fertig was drawn to painters from the

19th century. Since the late 1990s, Fertig has been painting scenes of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars in a loosely abstracted realism. Fertig’s stated reason for this shift is that these scenes let him best express the ideas that interest him. A tumultuous period in French history that saw the rise and fall of multiple systems of government, and a massive military campaign that nearly conquered Europe under Napoleon’s reign, Fertig’s choice of subject matter is more connected to our present day than we might initially recognize. The United States, in the wake of the September 11th attacks in 2001, launched itself into two wars/occupations in foreign lands that lasted for well over a decade. At home, these wars brought about a new lens of militarism into the common culture of the country, and a greater visibility of military personnel in everyday life than has been seen since the end of the cold war. The current President has only heightened this presence and increased the impact of military might on everyday life in the U.S.

Fertig’s choices of subject matter encompass land and sea battles, Aides de Campe, groups of sailors landing long boats on the shore, riders on horseback, and selected historic figures. For most of these, the non-specificity of the subject allows the viewer to focus on the virtuosity of Fertig’s painting technique and its ability to convey drama. Among the compositions included in the exhibition, one of the most important is the three quarter length portrait of Suzanne le Peletier de Saint-Fargo. A French aristocrat by birth, when her father (an important revolutionary) was assassinated she became an orphan of the state. In this case, they National Assembly of France was her legal guardian. When she was old enough to marry, she fell in love with a penniless dutchman, much to the horror of her family. He uncles petitioned the Assembly to stop the marriage on the grounds that it would dilute the revolutionary blood in her veins because she would loose her French citizenship. By doing this, her uncles sparked a national debate about women’s rights, the rights of orphans, citizenship rights, and turned her into an early feminist hero. In the end the marriage was allowed to proceed, however she later divorced the dutchman and married one of her French cousins with whom she remained married until her death.

Another close friend to Kulicke, Sheehan, and Fertig was the late painter and illustrator Robert Andrew Parker (1927-2023). Parker was born in Norfolk, Virginia, but grew up in New Mexico for health reasons. His mother was an artist who encouraged his creative impulses. After earning his BA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1950, he began his career as a painter and had several notable showings in Chicago and New York. These led, in 1956, to his being hired by MGM film studios to assist in the production of

Lust for Life, a film starring Kirk Douglas as Vincent van Gogh. Parker was responsible for painting replicas of van Gogh’s paintings and having his hands stand in for those of Douglas’ during certain shots. Not long after this, Parker began illustrating books for a number of authors, winning the Randalph Caldecott Medal for his work on Pop Corn and Ma Goodness by Edna Mitchell Preston in 1969. His illustrations also appeared in numerous publications, including The New yorker, Playboy, Penthouse, Fortune, Sports Illustrated, Esquire, and Time. He also used his skills to paint album covers for such renowned jazz musicians as Thelonius Monk, Duke Ellington, Art Tatum, and Dave Brubeck.

Robert Andrew Parker’s exploration of realism was one that danced with abstraction. His expressive line not only described the form he had drawn, be it a human form, an interior scene, or a landscape, it also imbued that form with a sense of character. This is evident in his deft depictions of the Iris in a vase and the Cairn Terrier in view in the exhibition. One of Parker’s favorite things to create were the many Alphabet Books he made. Usually created in small editions, Parker would select whimsical collections of words to illustrate, as he did with An Alphabet: Amazons to Zapata. He would then draw images and have them printed using lithography or other methods. When the editions in hand, Parker would often hand color in the sheets using watercolors, and then have them loosely bound in cloth covered cases. Turning each page, the viewer is confronted with an image we are left to interpret the meaning for beyond the word chosen. When read as a continuous text, the images coalesce into a disjointed, post-modern story, for which we can only guess the broader narrative that would thread these scenes together. This greater ambiguity surely delighted Parker as much as the search for words themselves.

Younger generations of artists working today in America have embraced realism for a multitude of uses -- narratives, portraiture, identity politics, and graphic novels among them – and have developed their own stylistic iterations of the genre to suit. The throughline from the past to now is the power realism has to both illustrate and embody the complexity of human experience on canvas, page, or in three dimensions. Its elasticity to meet the moment in recording and reflecting back to us the viewpoint of the artist about the times they are living is a defining trait that will ensure the tradition will continue for generations to come.

Sophia St. Claire is writer and critic based in the Bay Area.

Plate 5:

Plate 6:

Plate 7:

8:

Plate 11:

Plate 15:

16:

Exhibition Checklist

Plate 1: David Fertig Lord Cochrane’s Cutter II

2000 oil on wood 10 x 10 inches

Plate 2: David Fertig Aide de Campe

2007 oil on Masonite 73 3/4 x 48 1/8 inches

Plate 3: David Fertig Roses 2010 oil on Masonite 19 3/4 x 19 1/2 inches

Plate 4: David Fertig Untitled (Rider on Shore) n.d. oil on panel 6 1/2 x 7 inches

Plate 5: Pam Sheehan Light on the River 2014 oil on Masonite 18 3/16 x 23 7/16 inches (frame)

Plate 6: Robert M. Kulicke Untitled (Bouquet with Yellow Flowers) 1986 oil on panel 12 1/4 x 12 7/8 inches (frame)

Plate 7: Pam Sheehan Hudson Valley 2012 oil on panel 16 5/8 x 21 5/8 inches (frame)

Plate 8: Pam Sheehan After the Rain Outside the Met 2012 oil on panel 15 5/8 x 18 5/16 inches (frame)

Plate 9:

Robert M. Kulicke

Single Pear 1968

sanka on paper

3 1/2 x 3 inches

Plate 10:

Robert M. Kulicke

Untitled (Bouquet with Yellow Flowers) 1986 oil on panel 12 1/4 x 12 7/8 inches (frame)

Plate 11:

Robert M. Kulicke

Two Pears and a Lemon on a Brown Surface Against a Black Background n.d.

oil on cardboard

9 3/4 x 12 3/8 inches (frame)

Plate 12:

Robert Andrew Parker

Iris

6/9/2003

watercolor on brown paper 11 3/4 x 8 3/4 inches

Plate 13:

Robert Andrew Parker Cairn Terrier

4/29/2004

watercolor on cardboard 11 3/4 x 8 inches

Plate 14:

David Fertig

Suzanne Lepeletier De Saint Fargeau

2009 oil on Masonite 48 x 35 1/4 inches

Plate 15 & 16:

Robert Andrew Parker

An Alphabet: Amazons to Zapata 2009

watercolor on paper in woven cloth case, Ed. 3/26 9 3/4 x 7 1/4 inches

DAVID FERTIG

Born 1946 in Philadelphia, PA

EDUCATION

1972 MFA, The Art Institute of Chicago

1967 BFA, Philadelphia College of Art

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Philadelphia College of Art (now, the University of the Arts), Philadelphia, PA

Artists for Environment, Delaware Water Gap, NJ

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2023 Paintings and Pastels, Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2016 Paintings, The Century Association, New York, NY

Paintings and Drawings by David Fertig, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, New York, NY

2015 Paintings, Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA

David Fertig, Galerie de Bellefeuille, Montréal, Quebec, Canada

2013 Paintings, Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA.

2012 David Fertig, Galerie de Bellefeuille, Montréal, Quebec, Canada

2011 Paintings, Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2010

David Fertig, PDX Contemporary Art, Portland, OR

David Fertig, Sladmore Contemporary, London, United Kingdom

2009 New Paintings, Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA

Recent Paintings, James Graham & Sons, New York, NY

2008 Boats and Battles, Alastair Crawford, LLC, Nantucket, MA

2007 Recent Paintings, Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2006 New Work, James Graham & Sons, New York, NY

2005 Recent Paintings, Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA

David Fertig: Paintings, James Graham & Sons, New York, NY

2004 New Paintings, Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2003 JG | Contemporary / James Graham & Sons (two-person show), New York, NY

2002 Paintings and Pastels, The More Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

2001 Paintings & Pastels, Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA

Kerygma Gallery, Ridgewood, NJ

2000 Tatistcheff Gallery, New York, NY

1999 The More Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

1998 Kerygma Gallery, Ridgewood, NJ

The More Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

1997 The More Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

1996 Recent Work, Evansville Museum of Arts and Science, Evansville, IN

The More Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

1995 The More Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

1994 Recent Work, Carspecken-Scott Gallery, Wilmington, DE

Recent Work, Eastlake Gallery, New York, NY

1993 Recent Work, Eastlake Gallery, New York, NY

Recent Work, Carspecken-Scott Gallery, Wilmington, DE

Pastels, Eastlake Gallery, New York, NY

1992–1978 Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

1986

Monotypes, John F. Warren, Bookseller, Philadelphia, PA

1984 Recent Pastels, Griffin-Haller Gallery, Washington Depot, CT

1983 Recent Paintings, Noyes Museum, Oceanville, NJ

1977 Delaware River Paintings, Peale House Galleries, PA

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2026 Four Friends: Works by David Fertig, Robert M. Kulicke, Robert Andrew Parker and Pam Sheehan, Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2016–1976 artMRKT San Francisco, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, CA 2014

Art Silicon Valley/San Francisco, San Mateo County Event Center, San Mateo, CA

EXPO Chicago, Festival Pavilion, Navy Pier, Chicago, IL

Art Miami, The Art Miami Pavilion, Wynwood Arts District, Miami, FL

Palm Springs Fine Art Fair, Palm Springs Convention Center, Palm Springs, CA

Figures & Faces- Fighting with Fiction, Prographica, Seattle, WA.

Painting is History, Winkleman Gallery, New York, NY

Contemporary Drawings by Gallery Artists, James Graham & Sons, New York, NY

Summer Group Show, Morgan Lehman Gallery, Lakeville, CT

West Coast Drawings VIII, Davidson Galleries, Seattle, WA

Twenty-Five Treasures, Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA

Art in Embassies, US Department of State, Tokyo 2005

Barbara Mathes Gallery, New York, NY

The Century Club, New York, NY

Elaine Benson Gallery, Bridgehampton, NY

Gross McCleaf Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

Marian Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

The More Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

The National Academy of Design, New York, NY

Twenty-Five Treasures, Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA

Group Show: Landscapes, Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA

Imaginative Affinities: Echoes of Edwin Dickinson in Contemporary American Painting, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA

State Museum of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, PA

The Stedman Art Gallery, Rutgers University, Camden, NJ

Tatistcheff Gallery, New York, NY

The Westmoreland Museum of Art, Greensburg, PA

The Woodmere Museum, Bryn Mawr, PA

SELECTED PUBLIC AND PRIVATE COLLECTIONS

Blue Cross of Pennsylvania, Camp Hill, PA

Chemical Bank, New York, NY

Cigna, Philadelphia, PA

Citibank, New York, NY

Citicorp, Newcastle, DE

Colgate University, Hamilton, NY

Coopers & Lybrand, Philadelphia, PA

Deckert, Price and Rhoads, Philadelphia, PA

Duane, Morris and Heckscher, Philadelphia, PA

Evansville Museum of Arts and Science, Evansville, PA

Greitzer and Locks, Philadelphia, PA

Hahnemann Hospital, Philadelphia, PA

Kidder Peabody, New York, NY

Merrill Lynch, Princeton, NJ

Millersville State College, Millersville, PA

Penn Mutual Insurance Company, Philadelphia, PA

Pepper, Hamilton, and Sheetz, Philadelphia, PA

Price Waterhouse, Washington, DC.

Provident Mutual Life Insurance Co., Philadelphia, PA

RCA Corporation, Cherry Hill, NJ

Smith Kline Corporation, Philadelphia, PA

State Museum of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, PA Subaru, Cherry Hill, NJ

Woodmere Museum, Bryn Mawr, PA University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN

PUBLICATIONS AND REVIEWS

2014 Pocaro, Alan. “Expo Dispatches: Figures that Stand Their Ground”, NewCityArt, September 9, 2014.

2013 Upchurch, Michael. “Some eerie, startling work at Prographica’s ‘Figures & Faces’”, The Seattle Times, December 27, 2013.

Baker, Kenneth. “David Fertig Paul Thiebaud San Francisco”, ARTnews, September 2013, pgs. 105–106.

“Bay Area Weekend Picks, April 18–21, Visual Arts: Painting”, San Francisco Chronicle, April 18, 2013.

Malafronte, Allison. “David Fertig’s Solo Exhibition at Paul Thiebaud Gallery in San Francisco.” Fine Art Connoisseur, April 2013.

2012 David Fertig. Galerie de Bellefuille, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

2011 Baker, Kenneth. “Fertig at Thiebaud: His Aim a Mystery or History?” San Francisco Chronicle. 7 May.

2007 Twenty-Five Treasures, Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA. Fall 2007. David Fertig: Recent Paintings, Essay by Kelly Purcell. Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 2007.

Scott, Bill. “David Fertig at James Graham and Sons”, Art in America, April 2007, pg. 146.

2006 Naves, Mario. “A Painter’s Enviable Touch—And His Napoleon Complex”, New York Observer, November 13, 2007.

2006 Naves, Mario. “David Fertig at James Graham & Sons”, Too Much Art: Writings on Visual Culture by Mario Naves [blog], November 13, 2006. Cohen, David. “David Fertig at James Graham and Sons”, ArtCritical, November 2006. “Painting Honor and Treachery”, Forbes Life, December 2006. Smoler, Fredric. “Combat Artist”, American Heritage, November/December 2006.

2005 Naves, Mario. “David Fertig’s Peculiar Subject: Re-Imagining the Napoleonic Wars”, New York Observer, February 28, 2005.

2003 Naves, Mario. “Currently Hanging”, New York Observer, November 4, 2003. Twenty-Five Treasures, Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA, Fall 2003.

2002 Brown, Gerard. “Argh! The Cruel Sea”, Philadelphia Weekly. Prisant, Carol. “The Devil and Ms. W.”, The World of Interiors, August 2002. Savadove, Larry. “Artist Out of His Time,” The Sand Paper, May 2002. “Exhibition Review/More Gallery - Soldiers at Sea”, The Philadelphia Inquirer, May 2002.

2001 Golonu, Berin. “Previews”, Artweek, October 2001. Leng, Low Yit. “Art Thou Home?” Prestige, March 2001. “Review of Reviews: Art - David Fertig at Paul Thiebaud Gallery”, The Week, December 2001.

1996 Sozanski, Edward J. The Philadelphia Inquirer, May 17, 1996.

1994 Gardner, James. The New York Review of Art, February 1994.

1993 Meyers, Susan. The Kennett Paper, October 28 – November 3, 1993.

1992 Sozanski, Edward J. The Philadelphia Inquirer, March 1992. Mangravite, Andrew. “David Fertig’s Big-Top Display”, Welcomat-After Dark, March 25, 1992.

1990 Stern, Fred. “Letters from America”, Mizue, Spring 1990.

1989 Grove, Nancy. “Not So Simple”, Art and Antiques, December 1989.

1985 LeClair, James. Painting the Still Life, Watson-Guptil Publications. Scott, William. American Artist, November 1985.

1984 Leonard, Elizabeth. Painting the Landscape, Watson-Guptil Publications.

ROBERT M. KULICKE

Born 1924 in Philadelphia, PA

Died 2007 in New York, NY

EDUCATION

Philadelphia College of Art

Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA Academie Leger, Paris (1949-1951)

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Scarsdale Studio Workshop School, Scarsdale, NY

Kulicke Cloisonné Workshop, New York, NY

Founder / Director Kulicke-Stark Academy, New York, NY

HONORS

1988 Associate Member of National Academy of Design

1987 Associate of the Jewelry Arts Institute

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2008 Robert M. Kulicke: Paintings & Works on Paper, Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2007 Robert M. Kulicke, Davis & Langdale Company, New York, NY

2005 Robert M. Kulicke: A Celebration, Davis & Langdale Company, New York, NY

1981-2003 Annual Exhibition, Davis & Langdale Company, New York, NY

1994 Campbell-Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA

1993 The Courtyard Gallery, Washington Studio School, Washington, DC Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

1992 Campbell-Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA

1991 Color of Money: Robert Kulicke’s Dollar Bill Paintings, John F. Warren, Philadelphia, PA

1985 John C. Stoller & Company, Minneapolis, MN

1983 Columbia Museums of Art and Science, Columbia, SC

1974-80 Annual Exhibition, Davis & Long Company, New York, NY

1978 Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA

1970-73

Kornblee Gallery, New York, NY

1963 Alan Stone Gallery, New York, NY

1953 Alan Stone Gallery, New York, NY

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2026 Four Friends: Works by David Fertig, Robert M. Kulicke, Robert Andrew Parker, and Pam Sheehan, Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2023

Twenty-Five Treasures, Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2007 Twenty-Five Treasures, Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2005 Twenty-Five Treasures, Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA

FRAME DESIGN

1967-1968 Metal Section

1964 Plexibox

c. 1961 Knoll Welded Metal

1960 Welded Metal (designed for Museum of Modern Art, NY)

1959 Tenite Baguette

1953 Band, Parcel Gilded (including two-piece mat)

1952 Floating Baguette

1952 Knoll

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Albright –Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Neuberger Museum of Art, SUNY, Purchase College, Purchase, NY

Newark Museum, Newark, NJ

Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Oklahoma City, OK

Smithsonian, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC

The Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

ROBERT ANDREW PARKER

Born 1927 in Norfolk, VA

Died 2023 in Cornwall, CT

EDUCATION

1948-1952

School of the Art Institute of Chicago, IL

1952 Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, ME

1952-53 Atelier 17 in New York, NY

AWARDS AND HONORS

2004 Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame

Schneider Family Book Award

1979 Connecticut Commission on the Arts grant to execute suite of etchings on Connecticut River Towns

1970 Randolph Caldecott Medal

1969-1970 Guggenheim fellow

1967 Fellowship, Tamarind Lithography Workshop, Los Angeles, CA

1962 Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Grant from Institute of Arts and Letters, New York, NY

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

1985 Gerit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

1980-1992 Parsons School of Design, New York, NY

1984 Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI

1975 Syracuse University, NY

1960-1970 School of Visual Arts, New York, NY

1965 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, ME

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2009 Illustrated Books, Davis & Langdale Company, New York, NY

2007 Flight, Davis & Langdale Company, New York, NY

2005 Artist’s Books, Davis & Langdale Company, New York, NY

2003 Authors of Today, 1933: 100 Watercolors, Davis & Langdale Company, New York, NY

2002 Illustrated Books and Other Works, Davis & Langdale Company, New York, NY

2001 Illustrated Books and Other Works, Davis & Langdale Company, New York, NY

Tremaine Gallery at Hotchkiss, Lakeville, CT

2000 The Century Association, New York, NY

1999 Works on Paper, Davis & Langdale Company, New York, NY

1998 25 Years of Arts Week, Butler Gallery, Kilkenny Castle, Ireland

1996 Susan Conway Gallery, Washington, DC

1995 Words and Pictures, Terry Ditenfass Gallery, New York, NY

1993 Four Decades of Etchings, Terry Ditenfass Gallery, New York, NY

1991 25 Year Retrospective, Terry, Terry Ditenfass Gallery, New York, NY

1989 Jacob’s Pillow, Lenox, MA

1987-88 Terry Dintenfass Gallery, New York, NY

1986 University of Connecticut, Storrs

1985 Munson Gallery, Santa Fe, NM Washington University, St, Louis, MO Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, CT

1984 Arkansas Fine Arts Centre, Little Rock Gallerit, Stockholm, Sweden (etchings)

1982 Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY (etchings)

1976 Kilkenny Arts Week, Kilkenny College, Ireland

1971 University of Connecticut, Storrs

1969 Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA

1968 Phyllis Kind Gallery, Chicago, IL

1966-85 Terry Dintenfass Gallery, New York, NY

1966 J.L. Hudson Gallery, Detroit, MI

1963 Obelisk Gallery, Washington, DC

1961 Felix Landau Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

1960-65

1954-59

World House Galleries, New York, NY

Roko Gallery, New York, NY

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2026 Four Friends: Works by David Fertig, Robert M. Kulicke, Robert Andrew Parker and Pam Sheehan, Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2004 Works on Wood, James Graham & Sons, New York, NY

2002 Works on Paper, Davis & Langdale Company, New York, NY

2000 Kilkenny Arts Festival, Ireland

1987-1991

Erotic Art, Luise Ross Gallery, New York, NY

Annual Exhibition, National Academy of Design, New York, NY

1987 State of the Artists, Aldrich Museum, Ridgefield, CT

Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN

1986 Public and Private: American Prints Today, Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI, Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY

Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY

1985 Prints en Suite, Pratt Institute, New York, NY

Prints en Suite, Ketonah Gallery, New York, NY

Etchings by 17 Artists, Sylvan Cole Galleries, New York, NY

1984 20th Century Drawings, Arkansas Fine Arts Center, Little Rock

Prints of New York City, AAA Galleries, New York, NY

1982 Collector’s Show, Arkansas Fine Arts Centre, Little Rock

1979

Annual Ward Ranger Exhibition, National Academy of Design, New York, NY

From the Imagination, Green Mountain Gallery, New York, NY

1977 52nd Annual Exhibition, National Academy of Design, New York, NY

Contemporary Pastels & Watercolors, Indiana University Museum, Bloomington

1976 Skowhegan Retrospective, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA

1974 20th Century American Art, Neuberger Museum, SUNY, Purchase, NY

19th & 20th Century Masterpieces, Kennedy Galleries, New York, NY

1972 Satire and Irony, New School for Social Research, New York, NY

1969 Seventeenth National Print Exhibition, Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY

1968 Sixteenth National Print Exhibition, Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY

1967 Painting and Sculpture Today, Herron Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN

1966 Twenty Drawings and New Acquisitions, Museum of Modern Art, New York

1965

American Drawings, 20th Century, Gallery of Modern Art, New York, NY

Sixty-Five Self Portraits, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY

Portraits from the American Art World, New School for Social Research, NY

1963 22nd International Watercolor Exhibition, Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY

1962 Forty Americans Under Forty, Whitney Museum of Art (travelling exhibitions)

National Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, NY

The Figure Then and Now, School of Visual Arts, New York, NY

1959 National Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, NY

1957-59

Whitney Annual, Whitney Museum of Art, New York, NY

Contemporary Graphic Art in the United States (travelling exhibition circulated by USIS in Europe and Near East)

1957 Five Masters of Line (Alexander Calder, Jose Luis Cuevas, Stuart Davis, Morris Graves, Robert Andrew Parker) La Napoule Art Foundation, France

Recent Acquisitions, Museum of Modern Art, New York

Young America, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

1956 Whitney Annual, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

New Talent (travelling exhibit based on “New Talent” issue of Art in America magazine, sponsored by American Federation of Arts

1955 International Biennial Watercolor Exhibits, Brooklyn Museum, New York

1955 Whitney Annual, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

1954-56 New Artists: A Survey of Recent Work, (traveling exhibit sponsored by Museum of Modern Art, New York)

1953 Young American Printmakers, Museum of Modern Art, New York

1952 Watercolors, Drawings and Prints, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Amerada Hess Corporation

Arkansas Fine Arts Center, Little Rock, AR

Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL

Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY

Dublin Museum, Ireland

Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts Foundation, Los Angeles, CA

Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ

Morgan Library, New York, NY

Museum of Fine Arts, Raleigh, NC

Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

National Academy of Design, New York, NY

New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT

New York Public Library, New York, NY

Newark Museum, Newark, NJ

St. Paul Gallery and School of Art, Minnesota Museum of American Art, St. Paul, MN

Sara Roby Foundation

Smith College, Northampton, MA

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

University of California, Los Angeles, CA

University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA

University Museum, Ann Arbor, MI

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

Born 1956 in New York, NY

EDUCATION

1996 MFA, Lehman College, City University of New York, NY

1986 New York Academy of Art, New York, NY

1984-1986 Barnstone Studios, Coplay, PA.

1980-1984 Frudakis Academy, Philadelphia, PA

1980-1983 Pennsylvania Academy, Philadelphia, PA

1979-1980 Johnson Atelier, Princeton, NJ

1979 BFA, Parsons School of Design, New York, NY

TEACHING

2004-Present Instructor, Art Students League, New York, NY

1984-2004

Adjunct Professor, Rockland Community College, The Hudson Valley, NY

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2012 Recent Paintings, Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2011 Paintings, Davis & Langdale Company, New York, NY

2008 Oil Sketches, Davis & Langdale Company, New York, NY

2006 Recent Paintings, Davis & Langdale Company, New York, NY

Recent Paintings, Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2004 Recent Paintings, Davis & Langdale Company, New York, NY

Brick Walk Books & Fine Art, West Hartford, CT

2002 Davis & Langdale Company, New York, NY

2001 Davis & Langdale Company, New York, NY

1999 Davis & Langdale Company, New York, NY

1994 Edward Hopper Landmark Preservation Foundation, Nyack, NY

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2026 Four Friends: Works by David Fertig, Robert M. Kulicke, Robert Andrew Parker, and Pam Sheehan, Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2023 Twenty-Five Treasures, Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2017 Davis & Langdale Company, New York, NY

2005 Twenty-Five Treasures, Paul Thiebaud Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2002 The More Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

1996-1999 Holland and Wilson, Bedford, NY

1996-1998 Hubert Gallery, NY

1994-1996 Carlspecken-Scott Gallery, Wilmington, DE

Cover: David Fertig, Aide de Campe (detail), 2007

Rear Cover: Pam Sheehan, After the Rain Outside the Met (detail), 2012

Copyright 2026 Paul Thiebaud Gallery. All Rights Reserved. pgs. 1, 13, 15, 17, 19, 47, Copyright 2026 David Fertig. pgs. 31, 33, 35-37, Copyright 2026 Estate of Robert M. Kulicke. pgs. 41, 43, 48-51, Copyright 2026 Estate of Robert Andrew Parker. pgs. 22-27, 66, Copyright 2026 Pam Sheehan.

Essay copyright 2026 Sophia St. Claire.

Design: Greg Flood, Colleen Casey, and Matthew Miller. All images, photo: Matthew Miller.

No portion of this document may be reproduced or stored without the express written permission of the copyright holder(s).

PAUL THIEBAUD GALLERY