Paintings and Prints
Statement by the Artist
To printmaking, I bring the best of what I learn drawing and painting: the most satisfying compositions, the better insights, the caught moments of my most intense emotions. These I use as starting points for prints, as if in printmaking a higher, more complicated resolution can be attained, and especially in black and white, a sense of irrefutability...I am most comfortable working with tone to discover form, and with light to find atmosphere. It is this experience of quiet intensity that I explore, sometimes with an edginess that borders on the surreal. Work is, after all, an odyssey, and I have no concern about where it will lead, being content to discover my path as I pursue it."
Excerpt from "Printmaking Experiences: Robert Kipniss Writes About His Work," Printmaking Today, vol. 5, no. 1 (Spring 1996) pp. 8,10
For an overview of Kipniss's enormous amount of work in printmaking, click this link--Syracuse University Art Museum--to view his work in the museum's collection.
"Breezes," 1998
Roulette and drypoint with black and dark green ink
8 x 8 inches
Ebo Gallery
"At the Edge of Town II," 2013
Oil on canvas, 34 x 38 inches
The Old Print Shop
"Landscape w/Seven Trees," 2012
Oil on canvas, 22 x 32 inches
The Old Print Shop
Book Illustrations
Selected Poems of Ranier Marie Rilke
Ten lithographs by Robert Kipniss
The Limited Editions Club, New York City, 1981
For the Sleepwalkers: Poems by Edward Hirsch
Cover image is a lithograph by Robert Kipniss, "Afternoon Shadows"
Alfred A. Knopf, 1981
Robert Graves: Collected Poems
Cover image is a painting by Robert Kipniss
Doubleday Anchor, New York City, 1966
Poems by Emily Dickinson
Twenty-six drawings by Robert Kipniss
Thomas Y. Crowell, New York City, 1964
Notes from a Collector
"Five of your mezzotints and lithographs have been the companions of our solitude and imagination for the past 30 years. The carefully structured landscapes free of human figures offer complexity through simplification in the tradition of Sheeler, Hopper, and Wyeth. Without the distraction of the figure, we see the formality of the given, a gift not tainted by the desire or need to objectify. Your landscapes and buildings are abstract in the best sense, revealing the essence of things. Freed from being representational, they shimmer and vibrate with mystery and wonder. You are an inspiration for any artist. Each time we pass your prints on our walls at home we discover something new. They have enhanced the contemplative serenity of our lives as writers. Thank you for being faithful to your vision in the face of the au courant and commodified."
Joanne Cutting-Gray, Atlanta, GA