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Robert Kipniss

Windsor fine art is proud to present

Lasting Impressions Robert kipniss

May 17 - June 17, 2025

Celebrating 50 years of work, including oil paintings, lithographs, mezzotints and drypoint etchings.

A special thanks to Anne Lipscomb, Philip Allen and Isaiah Rivera.

Lasting Impressions: Reflections of a Career

“Things aren't all so tangible and sayable as people would usually have us believe; most experiences are unsayable, they happen in a space that no word has ever entered, and more unsayable than all other things are works of art.” -Rainer Maria Rilke

Born in Brooklyn in 1931, Robert Kipniss trained at the Art Students League and the University of Iowa. His early work explored biomorphic forms and abstraction, but over time, he shifted toward the solitary interiors and hushed landscapes that would come to define his mature style. Over a career spanning more than seven decades, Kipniss worked in painting, lithography, drypoint, and mezzotint. He is considered one of the most accomplished American Painter/Printmakers.

His subtle, poetic works have been exhibited in dozens of museums and collected by nearly 200 institutions worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Now, at 94, Robert Kipniss has retired from making new work, marking the end of an extraordinary era. For the first time, we as viewers can experience his oeuvre in true retrospect, a rare and reflective vantage point. Lasting Impressions includes pieces from the late 60s and early 70s, iconic pieces from the middle of his career and a collection of prints and paintings completed in the last ten years. Most of these pieces are Robert’s last impressions - they were done in small editions and have never been exhibited. They demonstrate not just a mastery of technique but also impact the viewer with a succinct simplicity in a way only the most experienced artists can deliver. In short, he has made the impossible look easy.

For me, this moment is not just a milestone in Robert's career, but a deeply personal one. My entire career in the art world has been shaped and enriched by his art. When I moved to San Francisco 23 years ago, I began my career as an art dealer at Weinstein Gallery. Although I had studied art in Chicago, this marked my formal entry into the professional art world. The gallery operated multiple exhibition spaces throughout the city, one of which was devoted exclusively to the work of Robert Kipniss. It was there that I met Philip Allen, Managing Director of the galleries and a leading expert on Kipniss’s work. Philip had represented Kipniss since 1994 in New York at Hexton Gallery, bringing the artist’s work to San Francisco in 1999.

Philip’s mentorship was foundational to my development as an art dealer. Through Kipniss’s work and Philip’s guidance, I learned not only about printmaking techniques and aesthetic sensibility, but also about the incredible responsibility a gallery has to its artists and collectors. I would go on to spend years immersed in the gallery’s comprehensive Kipniss collection, developing a deep and lasting relationship with the work. To anyone who would listen, I spoke about the nuance, stillness, and deeply reflective emotion that his images captured.

In 2005, when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) was forced to close along with much of the city, as a result an expansive show of Robert Kipniss prints had to be delayed. John Bullard, Director Emeritus of NOMA, made the decision to reschedule the exhibition and present it as the museum’s grand reopening.

Seen in Solitude was a superb exhibition of 86 prints and an impressive selection of paintings by Robert Kipniss. It opened in 2006, just seven months after the storm, and offered a profound moment of reflection and beauty amid the city’s recovery. I had the honor of attending the opening, my first visit to New Orleans, which, nineteen years later, would become my home.

Looking back now, I realize what a remarkable moment in time that was. Between Weinstein

In 2024, I found myself once again in New Orleans, this time as the new Director of Windsor Fine Art, a longestablished gallery in the heart of the French Quarter. And, much like Philip did some 26 years before me, I’ve brought the work of Robert Kipniss to a new city The sense of serendipity is amplified even further as Philip is now the Sales Director for The Robert Kipniss Studio and has been pivotal in organizing this show.

In planning this exhibition, we have sought out the best

Page 8 Gallery’s holdings and the NOMA retrospective, I had been immersed in one of the most comprehensive collections of Kipniss’s work that has ever been assembled.

examples of Roberts' pieces in the hopes of telling an equally comprehensive story. We have Pale Distance, an oil from 2006. This painting was shown at NOMA during the post-Katrina show It is an excellent example of his paintings from this period. The soft landscape is inhabited by ten thin trees, they seem to answer the viewer in chorus and present themselves initially as an obstacle, but then reveal themselves as gateways to the dense forested hills in the background.

Pale Distance, 2006 Oil on Canvas

Fields & Twilight, 1977, Lithograph Page 14

You can sense the same soft tension in Fields and Twilight, a color lithograph from 1977 that is featured prominently in The Graphic Work, Robert’s 1980 catalog raisonee. In the preface to the catalog Karl Lunde writes, “The center of these landscapes is not only the center of the world but, by analogy, the center of our bodies; for in Kipniss’s work the horizon seems circular and revolves around us, so that we are instantly placed on stage and in the spotlight.” I first read this passage more than two decades ago and am constantly reminded of it when I see pieces like Fields and Twilight.

We also have an example of the incomparable, Springfield, O Impressions of this drypoint etching can be found in the permanent collection of The British Museum and The New York Public Library, Print Collection. Completed in 1992, this drypoint represents one of the crowning achievements in Robert’s career and, in my opinion, one of the finest prints made in the latter half of the 20th century. There is a sublime serenity to the moment it portrays, with the subtle curve of the pathway in the distance

suggesting the unknown possibilities of what lies ahead. I am struck by the blacked-out windows; they seemed to encourage and celebrate the inevitable solitude of one who has stepped onto the road.

I have been familiar with these pieces for decades, and each one has a unique narrative in my mind. But for me, there is nothing like seeing new work. In preparation for this show, I was introduced to an astonishing collection of pieces from the last ten years. Among them, To the Black Mountain - a breathtaking mezzotint executed in 2022, making it one of the last pieces Robert created. If Robert’s work is a journey, then To the Black Mountain is the destination. A simple landscape, flawlessly executed, the distant mountains vaguely reminiscent of the human figure, with a bright cloudless sky and three thin trees like rungs on a ladder with which to pull yourself forward. It’s an ideal moment and place, as Walt Whitman said in Song of the Open Road, “I think I could stop here myself and do miracles.”

Springfield, O , 1992 Drypoint Etching Page 42

To The Black Mountain 2022 Mezzotint page 39

Today, Windsor Fine Art is proud to present Lasting Impressions, a 58-piece exhibition spanning the years 1969 to 2022. This comprehensive show offers a curated survey of prints and paintings that include the rarest examples of his work in each of his primary media. The reality of prints is that they tend to fade and yellow if not properly handled and framed. In the case of this show, we are looking at truly pristine impressions directly from the artist's private collection. Windsor Fine Art is honored to be one of only four galleries internationally with access to Robert’s archives. In several cases, you are seeing either the last perfect example of pieces that will ever be available, or you’re seeing recent impressions that have never been displayed before. In all likelihood, this show is a fleeting moment that won’t come again.

This exhibition also represents a full-circle moment in my career. For 23 years, Kipniss’s work has been a quiet, powerful companion in my journey through the art world, and in many ways, his work taught me how to see. From art consultant to gallery director, from San Francisco to New Orleans, his influence on me cannot be overstated. For me, Lasting Impressions is more than a title, it is an acknowledgment of the various moments and threads that are intertwined and shape our lives, many of which are impossibly subtle in the moment of their inception, but will prove to be the most enduring and consequential. Like Robert’s work, you can choose to bring yourself to these quiet moments that can’t be put into words, and if you’re lucky, perhaps the impression left behind will be a lasting one.

Travis Wilson New Orleans, 2025

Robert Kipniss working on a lithographic stone, 1970s

OIL ON CANVAS

Painting became an obsession for Robert Kipniss in his young adulthood. He considered himself entirely self-taught as a painter and prolifically produced paintings for over seven decades.

Untitled,

1975 Oil on Canvas 24 x 20 in

Afternoon Call, 1975

Oil on Canvas

30.5 x 26.5 in

Branches & Shadows, 2005

Oil on Canvas

36 x 28.25 in

Houses w/Two Chimneys, 2004 Oil on Canvas 24 x 26 in

Three

Pale Distance, 2006 Oil on Canvas 24 x 20

Evening Luminescence, 2014 Oil on Canvas 16.75 x 28.75 in

Trees & Clouds, 2013 Oil on Canvas 16 x 25 in

Fields & Clouds, 2015

Oil on Canvas

38 x 34 in

Reaching, 2015 Oil on Canvas 20 x 22 in

from a

Pages

sketchbook V, 2015 Oil on Canvas

Clouds & Six Trees, 2015 Oil on Canvas 22.25 x 28.25 in

LITHOGRAPHS

Kipniss developed an affinity for lithography after he had begun printmaking 1967. Despite initially finding it complicated, lithography became an obsession for Robert, leading him to spend significant time working with printers for over 20 years. He made his final lithographs in the mid-1990's.

Fields & Twilight, 1977 Lithograph 23.5 x 19 in

Still Life w/ Easel & Tree, 1978

Breezes, 1980 Lithograph 18 x 15.87 in

1982 Lithograph 3 x 3 in

A Late Awakening, 1986 Lithograph 17.25 x 14.87 in

Poised, 1986 Lithograph 15 x 19 in

The Orange Gate, 1988

Lithograph 16 x 14 in

Flowers, 1988

6.5 x 5 in

Gables, 1988

9 x 10.5 in

Roofs, 1989 Lithograph 10.625 x 8.75 in

Orange

Clouds, 1989 Lithograph 14 x 12 in

Rooftops At Elsah, 1990

Lithograph 19 x 16.5 in

Roadside, Elsah, 1990

Lithograph 16.5 x 19 in

Untitled 043, 1993

Lithograph 8.5 x 6.75 in

w/Porch & Moon, 1994

Lithograph 10.375 x 8.75 in

Hillside

Hillside w/Orange Trees, 1994

Lithograph 17.125 x 14 in

Green Shadows II, 1994 Lithograph

Mezzotints

In mezzotint, a metal plate is pitted, creating a surface that would print solid black The artist then works the pitted surface with a burnisher, smoothing areas to hold less ink and print lighter. Essentially, the artist works backward from dark to light. Kipniss notes that this laborious technique creates the broad tonal variations and dramatic contrasts important in his works.

Amish Country, 1992 Mezzotint

6.87 x 7.25 in

Echo, Trees & Shadows, 2003 Mezzotint

19.5 x 16.5 in

For Laurie, 2005 Mezzotint 17.75 x 23.75 in Chair & Leaves, 2006 Mezzotint & Aquatint 14.87 x 19.5 in

Vase w/Branches & Chair, 2013 Mezzotint 22.625 x 15.25 in

Window w/Vase & Four Trees, 2015 Mezzotint 12.5 x 10.25 in

18.5 x 25 in

Backyards At Dusk, 2017

Mezzotint

The White Mountain, 2019 Mezzotint 17.125 x 14.125 in

To The Black Mountain, 2022

Drypoint Etchings

"I immersed myself in making drypoints, drawing with a diamond headed stylus into copper plates, and using a steel burnisher to remove and lighten lines. I found the process of drawing directly onto the plate very pleasurable and the results were rich and promising"

- Robert Kipniss

Kipniss has produced drypoints periodically since 1967, but in smaller numbers than his works in lithography or mezzotint. His drypoints often focus on negative space, creating more of an effect of outdoor light compared to his mezzotints.

After a long hiatus from the medium, Kipniss returned to drypoint in his later years. Since 2016, he has completed several atmospheric compositions in the medium, with examples listed dating up to 2022