Robert Cenedella

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Robert Cenedella
Born(1940-05-24)24 May 1940
Milford, Massachusetts
NationalityAmerican
EducationArt Students League of New York
Known forPainter
Notable work
"Santa Claus" (1988), "Le Cirque — The First Generation" (1998), "Balcony" (1985), "Southern Dogs" (1963)
MovementSatire
Websitehttps://www.rcenedellagallery.com/

Robert Cenedella Jr. (born May 24, 1940)[1] is an American artist. He became well known for several of his paintings, including commissions by Bacardi, Heinz, Absolut Vodka and Le Cirque.[2]

Early life[]

One of the illustrations by Kent from Moby Dick that Cenedella got inspired by

Robert Cenedella was born in Milford, Massachusetts in 1940. He grew up in Connecticut with two older sisters.[3] At the age of 4, Cenedella looked at Moby Dick, illustrated by Rockwell Kent, which inspired him to pursue art.[4][5] Naturally left-handed, Cenedella was forced at an early age to use his right-hand.[6] Cenedella had difficulty learning to read, showed signs of dyslexia, and developed a stutter, possibly due to the forced use of his right hand. He stayed in Connecticut with his mother until he was 12, and Robert moved in with his father in New York because he wanted to learn how to read since he had severe dyslexia. By the time he was 13, he was reading Dick and Jane.[7] He attended the High School of Music and Art in New York, but was expelled for writing a satirical letter about the atom bomb drill to the school's principal.[8] In 1957, in response to the "I Like Elvis" button craze, Cenedella and Edmund Leites made the "I Like Ludwig" button, since he listened to Beethoven a lot. The button became a national seller, making it in an article of Observation Post and a comic of Peanuts where Charlie Brown sees Schroeder wearing the button. He sold thousands of buttons which with the money he made got him in the Art Students League.[9][5][10] Cenedella continued to receive his formal education at The Art Students League of New York, where he studied under the late German satirical painter George Grosz. In 1988, he took over the George Grosz Chair at The Art Students League and taught three courses from 1988 to 2016. He was replaced with Gregg Kreutz and Kreutz still teaches there to this day.[11][12]

Career[]

1970s-present[]

He continued to paint in the '70s, mostly painting political commentaries or New York landscapes.[13][14]

Following a tradition in art established by the likes of Pieter Brueghel, George Bellows, Marcel Duchamp, Honoré Daumier, William Hogarth and George Grosz before him, Robert Cenedella's works are known for their pictorial satire, humor and fantasy. His art chronicles the changing rituals and myths of society in contemporary America. In the last 20 years, Cenedella has amassed considerable international praise as well as inclusion in numerous public and private collections. His commissions include works for the Bacardi Int’l,[2]Absolut Vodka,[15] a theater piece for Tony Randall,[16] and two paintings for the Le Cirque 2000 Restaurant in New York and Mexico City.[2] Cenedella's “Le Cirque — The First Generation” still hangs at the restaurant's entryway and is featured in the book “A Table at Le Cirque”.[17]

In September 1985, Cenedella exhibited at the Château de Bagatelle in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris, a show sponsored by then-mayor Jacques Chirac. In 1988, he painted “Santa Claus” for a one-man show at Saatchi & Saatchi ad agency's headquarters in New York.[18] The painting garnered controversy even before the show opened and was taken down by the agency.[19] In December 1997, “Santa Claus” was displayed for the second time in public in a front window of The Art Students League of New York. Despite the complaints from New York's Catholic League, the school refused to take down the painting and kept it on display for the holiday season.[20]

In 1990, Cenedella was included in the Amnesty International Exhibition in Soho, New York. In December 1994, he had a retrospective exhibit at the Galerie Am Scheunenviertel in Berlin, Germany, which was a tribute to his former mentor and ran concurrently with the George Grosz Centennial Exhibition at the Berlin National Gallery.[21] That same year, Cenedella's concept of selling shares of stock of his painting "2001 — A Stock Odyssey" was disclosed in a New York Times feature article.[22][23]

From 1995 to 2000, Cenedella exhibited and lectured around the United States. From March to May 2003, a retrospective of the artist's political works was sponsored by The Nation Institute[24] and held at the New York executive offices of The Nation magazine.[25] This covered subjects ranging from the Selma riots to the preemptive war on Iraq, and was the first exhibition given to an American artist by The Nation. On March 11, 2004, Cenedella unveiled ��The Easel Painting Revival” at Le Cirque 2000.[26] In the spring of 2005, Cenedella held a solo exhibition at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York, and conducted a lecture entitled: “WHAT isn’t ART.”[27]

Cenedella's life and works are the subject of the 2015 documentary film Art Bastard. The film was submitted to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the 2016 Oscar race and was in consideration for the Documentary Feature category for the 89th Academy Awards.[28] It has received multiple awards in the festival circuit, such as Winner of Best Documentary at the Manchester Film Festival and Winner of Best Documentary and Best Director — Documentary at the Idllywild International Festival of Cinema. [29]

In 2015, Cenedella was commissioned to create a painting titled Fín del Mundo, a tryptich which "captures the chaos surrounding Donald Trump's march to the White House."[30] It was displayed in time for the United States presidential election on November 2, 2016 at Central Park Fine Arts.[30] In 2017, Fín del Mundo along with Cenedella's newest work, Pence on Earth, "which depicts Mike Pence dressed as the Pope, with a giant Trump standing over him in a uniform," [31] were featured in Huffington Post.

Controversy[]

In 2017, he got controversy for displaying his 20 year old painting again, The Presence of Man, previously named just Santa Claus, which depicts a crucified Santa Claus with presents in front of him. Cenenella wrote a response, "I didn't replace Christ with Santa Claus: Commercialism and Capitalism did." The painting has gotten controversy in 1997 when it debuted.[32][33] In 2018, he filed 2 complaints for The Metropolitan Museum of Art for not showing his art work and he tried to sue them for $100 million for starting an unlawful conspiracy, but the case was dismissed.[34][35]

Selected list of works[]

  • 1962 "Gallery Opening"
  • 1963 "Southern Dogs"
  • 1968 "Second Avenue"
  • 1981 "Santa Fe Rider"
  • 1984 "Rape of the IRT"
  • 1985 "Balcony"
  • 1986 "2001 - A Stock Odyssey]"
  • 1986 "The Giants"
  • 1987 "Soho Lives"
  • 1989 "Santa Claus" (renamed "The Presence of Man")
  • 1998 "Le Cirque — The First Generation"
  • 2008 "Impeachment Off the Table"

Further reading[]

References[]

  1. ^ D'Arcy, David (May 30, 2016). "Art Bastard: Robert Cenedella Has Never Been an Art World Darling, And That's Fine". Observer. Retrieved March 20, 2020. Mr. Cenedella and friends celebrated the New York premiere of Art Bastard on May 23, upstairs at Le Cirque, in front of the painting. Almost 20 years after the unveiling, many of those boldfaced names are no longer with us, although Marco Maccioni, Sirio’s son, whose boyish face is in the center of the painting, was passing hors d’oeuvres. “I’m a waiter,” he said. “I’m a painter,” Mr. Cenedella said back. Mr. Cenedella turned 76 the next day.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c "The oldest (art) profession". Forbes. May 17, 1998.
  3. ^ Robert Cenedella: Artist, Satirical Painter - Part 1/2 5:35-5:40
  4. ^ Art Bastard (2015) 4:21-4:34
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b Fuller, Steve (July 27, 2017). "New York artist rediscovers island and his father". The Ellsworth American. Retrieved March 19, 2020.
  6. ^ Robert Cenedella: Artist, Satirical Painter - Part 1/2 10:10-10:51
  7. ^ Robert Cenedella: Artist, Satirical Painter - Part 1/2 10:52-11:44
  8. ^ "Black humor colors this painter's future bright" (PDF). Us. April 11, 1983.
  9. ^ Art Bastard (2015) 11:20-12:13
  10. ^ Halpern, Shelly (April 4, 1957). "Presley and Pogo Dethroned ; Students and Profs go Ludwig" (PDF). Observation Post (21). p. 3.
  11. ^ "Instructors- The Art Students League". Archived from the original on 2010-11-14.
  12. ^ "archive".
  13. ^ Alpo
  14. ^ Cross
  15. ^ "Robert Cenedella". undo.net. 2005-05-16.
  16. ^ http://rcenedellagallery.com/content/2353-tony-randalls-world
  17. ^ Smith, Liz (2012-10-16). "LIZ SMITH: Picture Perfect". New York Social Diary. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04.
  18. ^ Black, Larry (April 9, 1994). "View from New York: A portrait of paintings as the next junk bonds". Independent.
  19. ^ http://www.rcenedellagallery.com/sites/default/files/docs/Crucified_Santa_Claus.pdf
  20. ^ "Catholics decry crucified Santa" (PDF). Bangor Daily News. December 23, 1997.
  21. ^ http://rcenedellagallery.com/sites/default/files/docs/Ein%20Kreuz%20Article%20in%20German.pdf
  22. ^ Miller, Bryan (March 20, 1994). "The Art Of the Deal". The New York Times.
  23. ^ Bailey, Martin (May 20, 1994). "When art becomes stock becomes art" (PDF). The Art Newspaper.
  24. ^ http://rcenedellagallery.com/sites/default/files/docs/The%20Sun%20-%202003.pdf
  25. ^ http://www.rcenedellagallery.com/sites/default/files/docs/The%20Sun%20-%202003.pdf
  26. ^ https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1998/04/13/table-talk-6
  27. ^ http://www.artscenecal.com/Announcements/0505/626Gallery0505.html
  28. ^ McNary, Dave (2016-10-28). "Oscars: Academy Receives 145 Feature Documentary Submissions". Variety. Retrieved 2017-09-28.
  29. ^ http://www.artbastard.com/content/about-film
  30. ^ Jump up to: a b http://theartnewspaper.com/news/news/the-end-of-the-world-is-coming-to-manhattan/
  31. ^ Hay, R. Couri (2017-07-31). "Controversial Artist Robert Cenedella turns heads with latest works "Fin Del Mundo" and "Pence on Earth"". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2017-09-28.
  32. ^ "Controversial Santa painting is coming to town". New York Daily News. December 10, 2017.
  33. ^ Hoffman, Barbra (June 4, 2016). "Meet the NYC artist who crucified Santa Claus". New York Post.
  34. ^ Kinsella, Eileen (December 20, 2018). "This Artist Sued Museums for $100 Million for Declining to Show His Work. But a Judge Isn't Buying It". Art Net. Retrieved March 20, 2020.
  35. ^ Gross, Daniel (March 22, 2018). "Artist's $100 Million Lawsuit Is "Completely Baseless," Says Lawyer for Five Top Museums". Hyperallergic. Retrieved March 20, 2020.
Retrieved from ""