Robert Cenedella

Robert Cenedella
Born (1940-05-24)24 May 1940
Milford, Massachusetts
Nationality American
Education Art Students League of New York
Known for Painter
Notable work "Santa Claus" (1988), "Le Cirque - The First Generation" (1998), "Balcony" (1985), "Southern Dogs" (1962)
Movement Satire

Robert Cenedella is an American artist. He became well known for several of his paintings, including commissions by Bacardi, Heinz, Absolut Vodka and Le Cirque.[1]

Early life

Robert Cenedella was born in Milford, Massachusetts in 1940. He attended the High School of Music and Art in New York, but was expelled for writing a satirical letter about the atom bomb drill to the school’s principal.[2] Cenedella continued to receive his formal education at The Art Students League of New York, where he studied under the late German satirical painter George Grosz. In 1988, he took over the George Grosz Chair at The Art Students League and presently teaches three courses.[3]

Career

Following a tradition in art established by the likes of Pieter Brueghel, George Bellows, Marcel Duchamp, Honore Daumier, William Hogarth and George Grosz before him, Robert Cenedella's works are known for their pictorial satire, humor and fantasy. His art chronicles the changing rituals and myths of society in contemporary America. In the last 20 years, Cenedella has amassed considerable international praise as well as inclusion in numerous public and private collections. His commissions include works for the Bacardi Int’l [4] and Absolut Vodka,[5] a theater piece for Tony Randall,[6] and two paintings for the Le Cirque 2000 Restaurant in New York and Mexico City.[7] Cenedella’s “Le Cirque - The First Generation” still hangs at the restaurant’s entryway and is featured in the book “A Table at Le Cirque”.[8]

In September 1985, Cenedella exhibited at the Château de Bagatelle in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris, a show sponsored by then-mayor Jacques Chirac. In 1988, he painted “Santa Clause” for a one-man show at Saatchi & Saatchi ad agency’s headquarters in New York.[9] The painting garnered controversy even before the show opened and was taken down by the agency.[10] In December 1997, “Santa Clause” was displayed for the second time in public in a front window of The Art Student League of New York. Despite the complaints from New York’s Catholic League, the school refused to take down the painting and kept it on display for the holiday season.[11]

In 1990, he was included in the Amnesty International Exhibition in Soho, New York. In December 1994, he had a retrospective exhibit at the Galerie Am Scheunenviertel in Berlin, Germany, which was a tribute to his former mentor and ran concurrently with the George Grosz Centennial Exhibition at the Berlin National Gallery.[12] That same year, Cenedella’s concept of selling shares of stock in his painting 2001 - A Stock Odyssey was disclosed in a New York Times feature article.[13][14]

From 1995 to 2000, Cenedella exhibited and lectured around the United States. From March to May 2003, a retrospective of the artist’s political works was sponsored by The Nation Institute[15] and held at the New York executive offices of The Nation magazine.[16] This covered subjects ranging from the Selma riots to the preemptive war on Iraq, and was the first exhibition given to an American artist by The Nation. On March 11, 2004, Cenedella unveiled “The Easel Painting Revival” at Le Cirque 2000.[17] In the spring of 2005, Robert Cenedella held a solo exhibition at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York, and conducted a lecture entitled: “WHAT isn’t ART.”[18]

The 2016 documentary film Art Bastard takes as its subject Cenedella's life and work. The film's makers describe it as "the mischievous tale of a rebel who never fit into today's art world, yet has become one of its most provocative, rabble-rousing characters nevertheless. At once a portrait of the artist as a young troublemaker, an alternate history of modern art and a quintessential New York story", quoting Cenedella as saying "You can bastardize everything else in your life, but if you compromise with your art, why be an artist?" [19]

Selected list of works

References

  1. ↑ http://www.forbes.com/global/1998/0518/0104090a.html
  2. ↑ http://artbastard.com/docs/FrontRunners.pdf
  3. ↑ http://www.theartstudentsleague.org/Classes/Instructors/tabid/104/ctl/Detail/mid/498/itemid/66/Default.aspx
  4. ↑ http://www.forbes.com/global/1998/0518/0104090a.html
  5. ↑ http://www.undo.net/it/mostra/25666
  6. ↑ http://rcenedellagallery.com/content/2353-tony-randalls-world
  7. ↑ http://www.forbes.com/global/1998/0518/0104090a.html
  8. ↑ http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/guest-diary/2012/liz-smith-picture-perfect
  9. ↑ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/view-from-new-york-a-portrait-of-paintings-as-the-next-junk-bonds-1368843.html
  10. ↑ http://artbastard.com/docs/CrucifiedSantaClaus.pdf
  11. ↑ http://artbastard.com/docs/CatholicsDecrySantaClaus.pdf
  12. ↑ http://rcenedellagallery.com/sites/default/files/docs/Ein%20Kreuz%20Article%20in%20German.pdf
  13. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/1994/03/20/style/the-art-of-the-deal.html
  14. ↑ http://artbastard.com/docs/TheArtNewsPaperLondonMay1994.pdf
  15. ↑ http://rcenedellagallery.com/sites/default/files/docs/The%20Sun%20-%202003.pdf
  16. ↑ http://artbastard.com/docs/TheSunRCendellaLoRez.pdf
  17. ↑ http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1998/04/13/table-talk-6
  18. ↑ http://www.artscenecal.com/Announcements/0505/626Gallery0505.html
  19. ↑ http://www.artbastard.com
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