{{short description|American painter (born 1949)}} thumb|226x226px|Robert Neffson "EMPIRE" 50X79" oil 2020 thumb|Robert Neffson "Grand Central Window" 62x98" oil 2012 '''Robert Neffson''' (born December 28, 1949) is an American painter known for his photorealistic street scenes of various cities around the world, museum interiors and for early still lifes and figure paintings.<ref name="r1">[http://HammerGalleries/html/ArtistBio.asp?artnum=1490 Hammer Galleries biography]{{Dead link|date=February 2026 |bot=InternetArchiveBot }}</ref>
==Early life and education== Neffson was born in New York City and grew up in Little Neck, New York. He was raised by a single father, after his mother, an artist, died when he was seven. He began attending classes at the Art Students League of New York in 1961, under the instruction of artists such as Lennart Anderson<ref name="r2">{{Cite web|url=http://www.theartstudentsleague.org:80/bio_robert_n.html|title=The Art Students League of New York | Instructor Bio|website=theartstudentsleague.org}}</ref> and Edwin Dickinson.<ref name="r3">{{Cite web|url=http://www.theartstudentsleague.org:80/past_instructors.html|title=The Art Students League of New York | Instructors and Lecturers - Past and Present|website=theartstudentsleague.org}}</ref> As a student he copied old masters at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. His study of, among others, the painters Jan Vermeer, Thomas Eakins, Camille Corot, and Canaletto, developed his skills further. While attending the Boston University College of Fine Arts, from which he graduated ''cum laude'' in 1971,<ref name="r1" /> Neffson's work attracted the attention of his professors, including James Weeks and the abstract expressionist painter, Philip Guston.
He also studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine and the Tanglewood Institute in Lenox, Massachusetts, both on full scholarship. Achieving his master's degree in Fine Arts for Painting in 1973, again from Boston University, Neffson taught briefly at the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts, and Fisher College in Boston. He received the Massachusetts Arts and Humanities Foundation<ref name="r4">{{Cite web|url=http://mfh.org/grants/index.html|title=Massachusetts Arts and Humanities Foundation}}{{Dead link|date=February 2026 |bot=InternetArchiveBot }}</ref> and the Elizabeth T. Greenshields Memorial Foundation<ref name="r5">[http://cal.edu/~stdafrs/web/greenshields.html Greenshields Memorial Foundation]{{Dead link|date=February 2026 |bot=InternetArchiveBot }}</ref> Grants in support of his work.
== Artistic career == In 1976, Neffson's life and work were significantly changed when he was awarded the Fulbright-Hayes Fellowship for Painting<ref name="r1" /> in Rome. During his stay in Italy, he met William Bailey<ref name="r6">{{Cite web|url=http://www.bettycuninghamgallery.com/exception/info|title=Betty Cuningham Gallery|website=www.bettycuninghamgallery.com}}</ref> at the American Academy in Rome, who had a strong influence on his still life paintings at the time. Upon his return in 1977, Neffson was given a year long Artist-in-Residence Grant by the Roswell Museum and Art Center<ref name="r7">{{Cite web|url=https://www.rair.org/|title=The RAiR Foundation|website=The RAiR Foundation}}</ref> in New Mexico, followed by teaching positions at Arizona State University in Tempe and Pennsylvania State University. At that time he received a Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Visual Artist Grant<ref name="r8">{{Cite web|url=https://pacouncilonthearts.org/|title=Kostenlose Online-Kurse|website=pacouncilonthearts.org}}</ref> in 1983. He has also taught at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York and has continued to teach ''Painting from Life'' for many years at the Art Students League of New York.<ref name="r1" /><ref name="r2" />
Neffson was a member of the First Street Gallery<ref name="r9">{{Cite web|url=http://firststreetgallery.net|title=First Street Gallery}}</ref> in New York from 1978 to 1985, during which time he had numerous solo exhibitions, as well as group shows with such fellow artists as Catherine Murphy. While represented from 1985 to 1998 by Gallery Henoch<ref name="r10">{{Cite web|url=https://www.galleryhenoch.com/|title=Gallery Henoch|website=Gallery Henoch}}</ref> in New York City, he was inspired by Richard Estes and Chuck Close and was among a group of second-generation Photorealist painters that were exhibiting in SoHo galleries such as O. K. Harris Works of Art<ref name="r11">{{Cite web|url=http://okharris.com/|title=OK HARRIS - Works Of Art|website=okharris.com}}</ref> and Louis Meisel Gallery.<ref name="r12">{{Cite web|url=https://www.meiselgallery.com/|title=Louis K. Meisel Gallery|website=Louis K. Meisel Gallery}}</ref>
In 2004, Neffson was commissioned to create a painting of the near-completed new 7 World Trade Center building, which was presented to developer Larry Silverstein of Silverstein Properties in a ceremony presided over by New York State Governor George Pataki and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.<ref name="r1" /><ref name="r2" /><ref name="r13">[http://lowermanhattan.info/news/_toppingout_22590.aspx Lowermanhattan.info]{{Dead link|date=February 2026 |bot=InternetArchiveBot }}</ref>
In 2007, Neffson authored the catalog to the British painter Clive Head's<ref name="r15">[http://clivehead.co.uk/biography Clive Head]{{Dead link|date=February 2026 |bot=InternetArchiveBot }}</ref> exhibition at Marlborough Fine Arts, London.<ref name="r16">[http://marlboroughfineart.com/artists/view.asp?id=12 Marlborough Fine Arts]</ref> The text consists of an introduction and letters between the two artists centered on their discussion of the creative process.<ref name="r17">{{Cite web|url=http://artdata.co.uk/selection.pdf|title=Wayback Machine|website=artdata.co.uk|access-date=2008-02-18|archive-date=2008-07-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080706133418/http://artdata.co.uk/selection.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>
Robert Neffson joined Hammer Galleries<ref name="r1" /> in 1998, the New York institution. He has also exhibited at London's Plus One Gallery<ref name="r14">{{Cite web|url=https://www.plusonegallery.com/artists/|title=Hyperrealist Artists | Photorealist Artists|website=Plus One Gallery}}</ref> since 2005. In 2009 he was invited to join the Bernarducci.Meisel Gallery<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://bernarduccimeisel.com/artistsFrameset.html |title=Bernarducci Meisel Gallery | Artists |access-date=2009-08-22 |archive-date=2009-03-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090304122404/http://www.bernarduccimeisel.com/artistsFrameset.html |url-status=usurped }}</ref> in New York City. The director of the gallery, Louis K. Meisel,<ref name="r12"/> originated the phrase Photorealism in 1968, which was first used in a Whitney Museum<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://whitney.org/|title=Whitney Museum of American Art|website=whitney.org}}</ref> catalog in 1970. Neffson also began exhibiting with the Albemarle Gallery<ref>{{Cite web | title=Pontone Gallery | url=http://albemarlegallery.com | access-date=2025-05-17 | website=albemarlegallery.com}}</ref> in London during the same year. He continues to produce works that are exhibited and collected internationally.
== Exhibitions ==
* 2025 “Photorealism in Focus” Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA * 2025 “Real, Surreal, and Photoreal” Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor, NY * 2025 "PHOTOREALISM IN 2025" Louis K. Meisel Gallery, New York, NY * 2025 "Robert Neffson: A Survey", Louis K. Meisel Gallery, New York, NY * 2024 "Scaled--Down" Louis K. Meisel Gallery, New York, NY * 2024 "Visualizing Schubert" Louis K. Meisel Gallery, New York, NY * 2023 "Art Miami" Louis K. Meisel Gallery, Miami, Florida, USA * 2023-24 “Beyond the Lens, Photorealist Perspectives on Looking, Seeing, and Painting” AshevilleArtMuseum, NC. * 2023 "Fall Selections" Louis K. Meisel Gallery, New York, NY * 2023 "Spring Selections" Louis K. Meisel Gallery, New York, NY * 2022 "Art Miami" Louis K. Meisel Gallery, Miami, Florida, USA * 2022 "Recent Acquisitions" Louis K. Meisel Gallery, New York, NY * 2022 "Primavera" Louis K. Meisel Gallery, New York, NY * 2021 "Art Miami" Louis K. Meisel Gallery, Miami, Florida, USA * 2020 “High Fidelity: Anthony Brunelli and the Digital Age Photorealists” Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, NY * 2019 "Selected Photorealism" Louis K. Meisel Gallery, New York, NY * 2019 "Food for Thought" A Selection of Small Works Curated by Susan Meisel, Louis K. Meisel Gallery, New York, NY * 2019 "Panoramic Views" Louis K. Meisel Gallery, New York, NY * 2018 "Museum Insider" SOLO show, Louis K. Meisel Gallery, New York, NY * 2017 "From Lens to Eye to Hand " Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, NY * 2017 "Photorealism: 50 Years of Hyperrealistic Painting", Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, FL * 2016 "An Historical Overview of Photorealist Cityscapes Robert Bechtle, Richard Estes, John Salt and others" Bernarducci.Meisel Gallery, New York, NY * 2016 Bernarducci.Meisel Gallery, SOLO show, New York, New York * 2015 Bernarducci.Meisel Gallery "Cityscape Paintings: Looking From the Outside In, A Group Exhibition" New York, New York * 2013-2014 "Hyperrealism 1967-2012" Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza Madrid, Spain; Kunstmuseum Thun, Switzerland; Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, UK; Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, Netherlands; World Cultural Heritage Völklinger Hütte, Germany * 2013 "The Louis & Susan Meisel Collection" Butler Institute of American Art Youngstown, OH, USA * 2013 "Photorealism Revisited", Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Oklahoma, USA * 2012 "Photorealism Painting with a Camera" Kunsthalle Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany * 2012 Bernarducci.Meisel Gallery, SOLO show, New York, New York * Robert Neffson is based in New York City, where he lives with his wife, Karin Choy and their dog, Bagel.
{{blockquote|Neffson sees the geometry of the city foremost—the parallel lines of the architecture, the grids of the streets and windows, the angular shadows the sun casts between skyscrapers. One of Neffson's fortes is sorting out messy networks of objects, shadows, and reflections in store windows, which he does by systematically breaking down each component into a series of perfect planes.|''ARTNews'', November 2004.<ref name="r18">Mendelsohn, Meredith, ''ARTNews'', Volume 103, Number 10, November 2004</ref>}}
== References == {{reflist}}
== External links ==
* {{Cite web | title=exhibit-E {{!}} Website Design for the Art World | url=http://HammerGalleries.com | access-date=2025-05-17 | website=HammerGalleries.com}} * {{Cite web | title=Hyperrealism Art {{!}} Photo Realism {{!}} Plus One Gallery | url=http://PlusOneGallery.com | access-date=2025-05-17 | website=PlusOneGallery.com}} * {{Cite web | title=The Art Students League of New York | url=http://theartstudentsleague.org/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010201085800/http://www.theartstudentsleague.org/ | access-date=2025-05-17 | archive-date=2001-02-01 | url-status=live }} * {{Cite web | title=The Metropolitan Museum of Art | url=http://MetMuseum.org | access-date=2025-05-17 | website=MetMuseum.org}} * {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20031128124924/http://www.bernarduccimeisel.com/ Article title]}} * {{Cite web | title=Whitney Museum of American Art | url=http://Whitney.org | access-date=2025-05-17 | website=Whitney.org}} * {{Cite web | title=Pontone Gallery | url=http://AlbemarleGallery.com | access-date=2025-05-17 | website=AlbemarleGallery.com}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Neffson, Robert}} Category:20th-century American painters Category:American male painters Category:21st-century American painters Category:21st-century American male artists Category:1949 births Category:Living people Category:Art Students League of New York faculty Category:Art Students League of New York alumni Category:Painters from New York City Category:People from Douglaston–Little Neck, Queens Category:20th-century American male artists