Robert McCurdy

Robert McCurdy (born 1952) is an American artist known for his photorealistic oil paintings and photographs of notable figures in contemporary history. Among works held in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. are paintings of Toni Morrison, Neil Armstrong, the Dalai Lama, Muhammad Ali, Nelson Mandela, and others.^[1][2][3] In 2002, McCurdy was commissioned to paint a portrait of US Representative Martin Sabo for the US Capitol.^[4]

Robert McCurdy begins his painted portraits with a photograph, asking his sitters to address the unseen viewer directly and to make no gestures. He seeks an image that has no implied past or future but exists in the eternal present. McCurdy's goal is to provide a neutral environment in order to maximize the highly personal nature of the encounter between subject and viewer.

McCurdy's skillfully executed paintings focus the viewer's traditional response to the image of a human being: the coda of his paintings is the gaze, not the sitter's setting and story, compelling and recognizable though that story may be. Among those who have stood for McCurdy are the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Jane Goodall, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Toni Morrison, Neil Armstrong, Muhammad Ali, Carlos Fuentes, Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos, Mario Vargas Llosa, Isabel Allende and James Hansen, among others. His methodology includes taking hundreds of photos in an effort to arrive at the one that will best yield what he is striving to achieve:  a moment suspended, when the viewer catches the gaze of the rendered image – and holds it, without the veil of distracting thought or judgement.  That brief and elemental moment between the viewer and the image being viewed is what the artist hopes to achieve.

His minimalist approach in the presentation of a figure is one the artist has determined is the sustainable moment captured during the sitting, the image whose cues as to space and time have been most successfully set aside.

The artist removes any clue or comment as to time, place, history or judgement, leaving the viewer's initial and whole engagement in the exchange of a gaze.

Robert McCurdy has been exhibiting his photography and paintings for the past forty years. Select showings and collections include the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.; Frye Museum, Seattle; Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida; Le Tresors des Arts, Gstaad, Switzerland; Jack Shainman Gallery, New York; Nancy Solomon Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia; Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington; Venetia Kapernikas Gallery, New York, Berry-Hill Galleries, New York, among others.  McCurdy attained his BFA at the Maryland Institute College of Art, and received an Arts Fellowship from Yale University.

Solo Exhibitions[]

2009 Venetia Kapernekas Gallery, New York, NY

2008 Venetia Kapernekas Gallery, New York, NY

2007 Venetia Kapernekas Gallery, New York, NY

2005 Berry-Hill Galleries, Inc., New York, NY

2003 Berry-Hill Galleries, Inc., New York, NY

2001 Venetia Kapernekas Gallery, New York, NY

1999 Pamela Auchincloss, New York, NY

“Robert McCurdy, Paintings”, Shick Gallery, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY  

“Robert McCurdy, Paintings”, Frye Museum, Seattle Washington

1997 Nancy Solomon Gallery, Projects Room, Atlanta, Georgia

1992 Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, NY

1990 Le Tresors des Arts, Gstaad, Switzerland

1989 Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, NY

1986 Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, NY

1985 Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, NY

1984 Addison-Ripley Gallery, Washington, D.C.

1980 “Recent Works”, Washington Project for the Arts, Washington, D.C.

1976 Robert McCurdy: Works in Virginia”, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA

Selected Group Exhibitions[]

2020 "Visionary: The Cumming Family Collection" National Portrait Gallery^[5]

2010 National Portrait Gallery

2008-09 “Gaze: Vision, Desire and Difference in the Frye Collections” Frye Museum, Seattle, Washington

2006 National Portrait Gallery

2003-04 “Crosscurrents at Century’s End” Selections from the Neuberger Berman Art Collection

Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, September 2003

Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida December 2003

Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa Florida, January 2004

Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, Illinois, June 2004

1996 “Untitled”, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, NY

1995 “Art without Frontiers”, curated by Claude Simard, La Rouche, Canada

1995 “The Verdict is...”, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, NY

1995 “Paper Work”, Nancy Solomon Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia

1994 “Sculpture/Painting Robert McCurdy and Don Porcaro” Nancy Solomon Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia curated by Mary Dinaberg

1994 “Robert McCurdy. Elisa D’Arrigo” Victoria Anstead Fine Art, New York, NY

1993 “Abstratagies, Painting in the Nineties” Dunedin Fine Art Center, Dunedin, FL curated by Genevieve Linneham

1991 “Le Plaisir de la Raison”, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, NY

1990 “Heroes & Saints of Contemporary Art”, Transart Exhibition, Koln, Germany curated by Akim Monet

1988 “David & Goliath Exhibition”, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, NY

1987 Summer Group Exhibition, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, NY

1985 Invitational Exhibition, Jack Shainman Gallery, New York, NY

1984 Public Works (Site-specific sculpture proposals for public and city sites) Artists’ Space, Washington, D.C.

1983 Addison Ripley Gallery, Washington, D.C.

1982 "Hanover" Osuna Gallery, Washington, D.C.

1981 “Final Annual New Talent Show”, Grimaldis Gallery, Baltimore, MD

1980 “Hanover Show”, Osuna Gallery, Washington, D.C.

1979 “Fifteen Washington Artists”, Arts Gallery, Baltimore, MD

"Elements Of Art: Texture”, Arlington Arts Center, Arlington, VA

“Miniatures”, Foundry Gallery, Washington, D.C.

Site Pieces[]

1981 Rattler (commissioned site-specific monumental table) Spaulding & Style, Bethesda, MD

1980 House (commissioned site-specific sculpture for International Sculpture Conference), Washington, D.C.

1976 Outdoor Sculpture, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA

Selected bibliography[]

2021 Isis Davis-Marks: "Why Robert McCurdy's Photo-Realist Paintings Stop Viewers In Their Tracks", Smithsonian Magazine, January 2021

2020 Julia Ostmann: "Transforming Portraiture and the World", Harvard Magazine, May 2020

Nancy Kenney: "National Portrait Gallery Acquires 20 Works from Collecting Couple", The Art Newspaper, January 2020

2019 Sarah Shoen: "Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jeff Bezos, Anna Wintour and More in the National Portrait Gallery's Newest Additions", Vanity Fair, September 19, 2019

Jesmyne Keimig: "Currently Hanging", The Stranger's Blabbermouth Podcast Ep 223, November 20, 2019, and "We Need to Talk About This Painting of Jeff Bezos", November 19, 2019

1999 Ken Johnson: New York Times

1996 Kim Levine: "Voices Choices", Village Voice July 30, 1996

1994 George Melrod: "Robert McCurdy/Don Porcaro", Art and Antiques December

1993 Joanne Milani: "Abstratagies", The Tampa Tribune, May 1993

1992 Maria Vescovo: "Robert McCurdy", Titolo, May 1992

1986 Leone Lawrence: "Robert McCurdy", ARTNews

1982 Paul Richard: "Robert McCurdy: Abstract at Shaiman's", The Washington Post Nov. 23, 1985

Paul Richard: "Chic to Chic", The Washington Post, June 15, 1985

1982 Patrick Ladden: "Robert McCurdy", New Art Examiner, January 1982

David Tannous: "Robert McCurdy", Art in America

1981 Paul Richard: "Miracle on 7th Street", Washington Post, November 13, 1981

References[]