Works
Influences and Style
In a 1982 New York Times review, critic John Caldwell observed that "the question of artistic influences is unusually complicated in the case of Mr. Kipniss" and that "the sense that one gets in all of [his] work is of a genuinely individual sensibility." While this strongly individualistic approach has been universally acknowledged by many critics and scholars since, some have found resonance between Kipniss's concerns and that of Giorgio Morandi, René Magritte, Paul Cézanne, Caspar David Friedrich, Tonalism, the Hudson River School, and the Barbizon School, particularly Camille Corot.
Kipniss's subject matter is landscapes, interiors, and still lifes, often described as conveying solitude and inward experience. The lighting is penumbral or shadow-like; twilight and dawn are favored time settings. In his paintings Kipniss employs exceptional subtlety in tones and restrained use of color to create an overall atmospheric effect. His prints are masterly meditations on mood and light using a resticted black-and-white palette, though he has occasionally created color variants of selected prints, always employing a subtle color palette. His works in various media—paintings, drawings, and printmaking—are often interrelated, presenting variants on a theme. The paintings date from the early 1950s; the prints from 1967. His favored techniques in printmaking have been lithography and mezzotint, the former dating from 1968 into 1994, the latter since 1990.
Museums and Archives with Significant Holdings
Syracuse University Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York (325 works)
Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, Indiana (110 prints, 16 paintings)
Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, Pennsylvania (359 prints, 1967 to 1984)
The British Museum, London (57 works)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York (36 works)
Archives of American Art - Smithsonian Institution, Robert Kipniss Papers
MONOGRAPHS and AUTHORED WORKS
Robert Kipniss: Paintings and Poetry, 1950 - 1964
Monograph with paintings and poetry by the artist
Preface by Robert Kipniss
Introduction by Marshall N. Price, National Academy of Art
Essay by Robin Magowan, Poet
Published by The Artist Book Foundation, New York and North Adams, Massachusetts, 2013
Robert Kipniss: A Working Artist's Life
Memoir
Published by the University Press of New England, 2011
Robert Kipniss Paintings 1950-2005
Monograph
Foreward by E. John Bullard, Director of the New Orleans Museum of Art
Essay by Richard J. Boyle, Art Historian
Essay by Robert Kipniss
Published by Hudson Hills Press, 2007
Seen in Solitude: Robert Kipniss Prints from the James F. White Collection
Foreword and Acknowledgements by E. John Bullard, Director, New Orleans Museum of Art
Collector's Statement by James F. White
Essay by Daniel Piersol, Mississippi Museum of Art
An interview with Robert Kipniss
Published by the New Orleans Museum of Art, 2005
Robert Kipniss Intaglios 1982-2004
Catalogue Raisonné
Introduction and Documentation by Trudie A. Grace, National Academy of Art
Essay by Thomas Piche Jr., Everson Museum, Syracuse, NY
Published by Hudson Hills Press, 2004
Robert Kipniss: The Graphic Work
Catalogue Raisonné
Preface by Karl Lunde
Published by Abaris Books, 1980