Robert Petersen
IFPDA Print Fair 2025
Robert Petersen
Robert Petersen was born in 1945 in the small farm town of Le Mars, Iowa and was raised there until 1952 when he moved with his family to Whittier, California to seek better care for his brother diagnosed with Polio. Taking an early interest in art, he began his formal education at Fullerton Community College in 1963, where his interest in architectural drafting led him to develop a passion for drawing, painting, and printmaking. In 1966, he pursued his passion for printmaking further at California State University, Long Beach where he studied under the former Tamarind Lithography printer, Robert Evermon.
Robert Petersen (left), Robert Rauschenberg (right) and staff at Gemini G.E.L working on Stoned Moon, 1969
Three years later, Petersen went on to work as an assistant printer at Gemini G.E.L., where he printed editions for Frank Stella, Roy Lichtenstein, and Robert Rauschenberg. His close work with Rauschenberg on the Stoned Moon series in the late 1960s deepened their bond, leading to Rauschenberg inviting him to live and work with him between his two studios in NYC and Captiva Island, FL. This move was significant, marking the beginning of a long-lasting personal and professional relationship between the two artists.
In 1971, Petersen and Rauschenberg co-founded Untitled Press, Inc., a print shop that became an experimental hub not only for themselves but also other visiting artists including Brice Marden, Hisachika Takahashi, Robert Whitman, and Cy Twombly. Petersen also closely assisted Rauschenberg with the Jammers, Hoarfrosts, and Cardboards series, among others. Meanwhile, he was producing his own work, concentrating on minimalist color studies made with opaque planes of powdered pigments. He slowly began incorporating highlights from his intricate sketch pages, until debuting his first journal drawing in 1976. The monthly collections of introspective observations, musings, and printed ephemera continue to serve as the basis of Petersen’s work today.
Rauschenberg's House and Studio, 381 Lafayette, New York, NY, 1968
Robert Rauschenberg (left) and Robert Petersen (right) working at Gemini G.E.L., 1969
Robert Rauschenberg (left) and Robert Petersen (right) traveling, 1970
The booth features a set of rare handcolored etchings of six original journal drawings from 1980, detailing Petersen’s musings and daily life on Captiva and abroad. In April 1980, poetic musings like “look at the moon”, “brown eyes”, and “bird sounds on Jungle Trail” combine with simple time-stamped annotations; “Monday, 2:30pm, Sid Felsen called”, “lunch with Cy”, “Jesse Owens died”, and “rain, 1:30pm, Metropolitan Museum of Art”, culminating into a composition with a subtle, unassuming elegance. Guests’ signatures also find their way into the drawings.
April 1980, 1980
Lithograph/Etching with hand coloring
3/4 x 36 inches
6/8
January 1980, 1980
Lithograph/Etching with hand coloring
29 3/4 x 36 inches
AP 6/8
February 1980, 1980
Lithograph/Etching with hand coloring
29 3/4 x 36 inches
AP 6/8
September 1980, 1982
Etching with hand coloring and collage
29 3/4 x 36 inches
Edition 5
“He would called them page. It was House. I I got this, know, it said, ‘Bob,
September 1980, 1982 Etching
29 3/4 x 36 inches AP 8/8
would comment on work like, ‘Good job.’ But this particular drawing really struck him. Another time was that one, I them Calendar Drawings in the eighties, I had that set and it was the ‘September 1980’ monthly journal written on a was an etching printed and then I hand-colored them... Anyway. I was working on that original down under the Beach heard Bob upstairs and I think and I went up the back steps into the kitchen and I walked in and I don’t know how this, I just, I just felt Bob should sign this. I’ve never asked him to sign my work before but it would be kind of, I don’t wasn’t like I didn’t, it just came in a split second. I didn’t hesitate, I just walked in and I went, ‘Oh,’ I put it down, I ‘Bob, I just finished this journal and I’d like it if you could sign it,’ and he said, ‘Yes, I’ll sign it.’”
-Robert Petersen
Chart Series October, 1976
Lithograph and hand coloring
31 x 42 inches
Edition of 50
“In collaboration one can accept the fact that someone else can be so sympathetic and in tune with what you're doing that through this they move into depths, which might not be obvious if that person had been working alone iin a studio with the door shut. It's like a society of exchanging ideas and collaborating withoyt being involved in jealousies and, if there's any sense of competition, it's onky game type competition."
- Robert Rauschenberg
March 1980, 1980
Lithograph/Etching with hand coloring
29 3/4 x 36 inches
AP 6/8
May 1980, 1980
Lithograph/Etching with hand coloring
29 3/4 x 36 inches
AP 6/8
Petersen's minimalist works from the early 1970's are concerned with compositional clarity by reducing the painting to a minimal number of shapes, lines, and textures. They are characteristic of the work that Clement Greenberg classified as Post-Paintery Abstraction, a phrase he coined in 1964 to describe the art movement that developed out of Abstract Expressionism. While Abstract Expressionists were concerned with the representational quality of colors and gestural displays of emotional intensity, Post-Painterly Abstractionists were characterized by lucid compositions devoid of any symbolic references that sought to emphasize the bare elements of painting.
June 1980, 1980
Lithograph/Etching with hand coloring
29 3/4 x 36 inches
AP 6/8
Paint On Top of Gold, 1995
Lithograph with hand coloring
13 1/4 x 20 1/4
Edition of 2
Red
Since arriving on Captiva, he had kept daily records in sketchbooks that included specific plans for drawings, collected images, musings, and documentation of day-to-day experiences and observations. Petersen became so involved with this note-taking that the information would accumulate into a sketchbook devoted to a single month. Ultimately, rather than consistantly returning to a bound book, Petersen began working directly on paper pinned to mounted board, a method that is still evident in his work today.
Detail from One of Bob’s Stories, Study #1, 2012
Mixed media, collage and photo transfer
7 1/2 x 7”
Collection of Jim Kempner
“What I like is the collaboration of the work because I respect the world, the beauty you see.”
of the viewer. I do world, nature, and
-Robert Petersen
Hummingbird in the Garden, 2000
Collage mixed media on paper
10 3/4 x 7 3/4 inches
Collection of Jim Kempner
"We
never talked or tried to figure anything out. It just happened in the process."
- Robert Petersen
Witness (Study 1), 2019 Collage and mixed media on paper 22 1/2 x 29 3/4”
Chart Series September, 1976
Lithograph and hand coloring
43 x 30 inches
Two Dimes, 1995
Lithograph with hand coloring
13 1/8 x 19 7/8
TP 11
“That was the other thing—from my own experience, I feel so lucky that by chance, when I landed, I always think I hit the tail end of the great days. I’m sure it was also really great in the fifties and sixties, but I happened to get there during the times where money had not become the focus of the art world."
- Robert Petersen
August 1976, 1976
Drawing, collage, and mixed media on paper
22 1/2 x 30 inches
“I was in art history, freehand drawing, different courses, and one night I was out in the parking lot... and I thought oh, the janitor is—it’s like midnight—mopping the floor. So I continued on my way, but I observed the man. Then, maybe two or three days later, I walked by the room and I saw that man instructing a class. I looked in and I went, god I thought he was a janitor and I instantly thought, if he’s in a classroom at midnight, I want to take the course. So I said I’ll sign up for that. So I signed up for lithography and fell in love with it."
- Robert Petersen
January 1977, 1977
Drawing with collage, mixed media on paper
20 x 25 3/4 inches
March 1977, 1977
Drawing, collage, mixed media on paper
20 x 25 3/4 inches
“Yes, you don’t say cool say, 'Hello, I’m Robert Petersen,' about it. But I understood working in the studio, and walked by one day and was overflowing. So I walked ashtray, took it to the trash came back with a cloth and reset the flowers, and Bob was actually there working—or wasn’t? He must have been later, he said, 'That was in. No one’s ever cleaned up the ashtray and emptied drink or—'... Anyway, Bob first memory of me."
New Canaan, 1994
Lithograph with hand coloring and collage leaf
26 1/8 x 18 7/8 inches
Edition of 50
or oh wow. You can Petersen,' and that’s understood that. Bob was there and I was printing. I I noticed the ashtray walked in, took the trash and cleaned it and and wiped the table and didn’t say anything. working—or maybe he been because he told me so nice of you to come cleaned the table and picked emptied it. Would you like a Bob mentioned that as a
-Robert Petersen
New Canaan, 1994
“There's a sense maybe because a belief that there will work out... precedent that's way. People make any rules."
For Albert P. Victor Foundation (Skins), 1988 Lithograph with hand coloring 22 1/4 x 18
sense of optimism here and of a future, because of the frontier society mentality; there's there will be new discoveries, that things There's also a lack of history and no that's so crucial that you must fit in a certain make their own history I think. There aren't
- Stanley Grinstein
Bird Anatomy (Book Pages), 1989
Relief print with hand coloring 14 x 5 3/4 inches
Robert Petersen (left) and Robert Rauschenberg (right) working at Gemini G.E.L., 1969
Robert Petersen during group show at Castelli, 1974
From Left to Right: Nicola Del Roscio, Rauschenberg, Cy Twombly, and Robert Petersen working at Untitled Press, , 1971
Little Janis, the print press for Untitled Press, 1971
JIM KEMPNER FINE ART
Jim Kempner Fine Art specializes in contemporary art, with a strong focus on master prints. Since opening in 1997 in Chelsea, the gallery has built an exceptional inventory for both seasoned and emerging collectors. Featuring prints and works on paper by modern and contemporary masters like Louise Bourgeois, Jasper Johns, Helen Frankenthaler, and Robert Rauschenberg, we also represent dynamic painters, photographers, and sculptors, including Christopher Beane, Charlie Hewitt, and Boaz Vaadia. Committed to education and engagement, the gallery fosters a deeper appreciation for collecting at all levels.
Designed by architects Smith & Thompson, our acclaimed modernist building has been featured in books on contemporary architecture. The outdoor sculpture garden—one of the few in New York—has showcased works by renowned artists such as Robert Indiana, Keith Haring, and Isamu Noguchi.
Jim Kempner is also the creator/writer/star of the cult comedy web-series The Madness of Art, as well as the artistic creator of three editioned prints.
Jim Kempner Fine Art, on the corner of 23rd and 10th, continues to imbue that old-school art world feel: a place where his artists, clients and neighbors regularly stop by to view great work, hang out for a bit and talk of art, life and the gap between.
