Robert Slutzky (November 27, 1929 - May 3, 2005) was an American abstract painter and architectural theorist. He was the chair of the department of Fine Arts at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

, and a critic of the

International Style The International Style is a major architectural style and movement that began in western Europe in the 1920s and dominated modern architecture until the 1970s. It is defined by strict adherence to Functionalism (architecture), functional and Fo ...

. His paintings were exhibited in museums on the East Coast.

Early life

Slutzky was born on November 27, 1929, in Brooklyn, New York City. He graduated from

Cooper Union The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly known as Cooper Union, is a private college on Cooper Square in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-s ...

in 1951 and he attended

Yale School of Art The Yale School of Art is the art school of Yale University. Founded in 1869 as the first professional fine arts school in the United States, it grants Master of Fine Arts, Masters of Fine Arts degrees to students completing a two-year course in g ...

, where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1952 and a master's degree in 1954.

Career

Slutzky began his career by teaching architectural theory at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

, where he worked with

John Hejduk John Quentin Hejduk (July 19, 1929 – July 8, 2000) was an American architect, artist and educator from New York City. Hejduk studied at the Cooper Union School of Art and Architecture, the University of Cincinnati, and the Harvard Graduate Sc ...

, Bernhard Hoesli and

Colin Rowe Colin Rowe (27 March 1920 – 5 November 1999) was a British-born, American-naturalised architectural historian, critic, theoretician and teacher. He is acknowledged to have been a major theoretical and critical influence in the second half ...

. With the latter, Slutzky co-authored a collection of essays in which he criticized the

. Slutzky later taught at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

and the

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York. It has an additional campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The institute was founded in 18 ...

. From 1968 to 1990, he taught at his alma mater, Cooper Union. He taught in department of Fine Arts at the

from 1990 to 2005, where he served as the chair. He received the G. Holmes Perkins Award for Distinguished Teaching in 2001. Slutzsky was also an abstract painter, with works exhibited at the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

, the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

, the

Boston Museum of Fine Arts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, and held by the

Whitney Museum The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is a Modern art, modern and Contemporary art, contemporary American art museum located in the Meatpacking District, Manhattan, Meatpacking District and West Village neighbor ...

and the

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) is an List of art museums#North America, art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at ...

Personal life and death

Slutzky was married twice; his second wife, Joan Ockman, is an architectural historian and theorist that currently teaches at the University of Pennsylvania and

Yale School of Architecture The Yale School of Architecture (YSoA) is one of the constituent professional schools of Yale University. The School awards the degrees of Master of Architecture I (M.Arch I), Master of Architecture II (M.Arch II), Master of Environmental Desi ...

. Slutzky had a daughter, Zoe, and he resided in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania. Slutzky died of

amyotrophic lateral sclerosis Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or—in the United States—Lou Gehrig's disease (LGD), is a rare, Terminal illness, terminal neurodegenerative disease, neurodegenerative disorder that results i ...

on May 3, 2005, in Abington, Pennsylvania.

Selected works

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Slutzky, Robert 1929 births 2005 deaths Artists from Brooklyn Artists from Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Cooper Union alumni Yale School of Art alumni University of Texas at Austin faculty Cornell University faculty Pratt Institute faculty Cooper Union faculty University of Pennsylvania faculty American male painters 20th-century American painters American abstract painters