b. Worcester, MA, 1943
d. Desert Hot Springs, 2021
Robert Cumming was born in Massachusetts in 1943. He received a B.F.A. in painting from the Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, and an M.F.A. in painting from the University of Illinois, Champagne-Urbana. After school, he taught at the university level for three years while showing his sculpture and painting in several exhibitions throughout the Midwest. In his sculptural practice he built illogical yet utilitarian-looking things that were intentionally devoid of utility. He also engaged in mail art, shipping tree branches and dry-cleaning tissue, as well as home-made and store-bought postcards, to friends and strangers alike, near and far.
In 1970, Cumming moved to Southern California to seek new exposure within the burgeoning art world around Los Angeles. There, he began to focus on photography, building elaborate tableaux that he shot with exquisite detail with an 8-by-10 camera. In 1973, Cumming first exhibited his photographs as part of the exhibition Minor White, Robert Heinecken, Robert Cumming: Photograph as Metaphor, Photograph as Object, Photograph as Document of Concept, at California State University, Long Beach. Other exhibitions in the 1970s included 24 Young Los Angeles Artists at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Picture Puzzles at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitney Biennial in 1975; and Mirrors and Windows at MoMA, New York.
A complete picture of Robert is essential to understanding his singular style that persists through many mediums. Cumming has exhibited his work internationally. The most recent survey of his photography, Robert Cumming: The Secret Life of Objects, opened at the George Eastman Museum and traveled to the California Museum of Photography at UCR ARTSblock in Riverside, California, in Fall of 2019. Other solo exhibitions include Robert Cumming: Cone of Vision, a retrospective that traveled to Australia and across the United States with stops at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, as well as over seventy additional solo shows, including Robert Cumming: Intuitive Inventions (Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, 1988), Mechanical Illusions by Robert Cumming (Whitney Museum of American Art, 1986), and The Clutter of Happenstance (MoMA, New York, 1998).
Education
| 1965 | B.F.A. Painting Mass. College of Art, Boston, 1965 |
| 1967 | M.F.A. Painting, Univ. of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, IL, 1969 |
Selected Solo Exhibitions
| 2022 | Large Prints, 1973-79/2020, Gallery Luisotti x Royale Projects, Los Angeles |
| 2020 | Robert Cumming: The Secret Lives of Objects, Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY, The California Museum of Photography (UCR Artsblock) (2-museum tour) |
2013 |
Jancar Gallery, Los Angeles |
2018 |
Janet Borden Gallery, New York, NY |
2005 |
Howard Yezerski Gallery, Boston, MA |
| 2002 | Robert Cumming. Architectural Artist, Dorsky Curatorial Space, Long Island City, NY |
| 2001 | Drawing survey, University of Mass., Amherst, MA |
| 1998 | Clutter of Happenstance, Museum of Modern Art, NY |
1994 |
Retrospective (catalog), Robert Cumming. L'Oeuvre Photographique 1969-1980. FRAC Limousin, Limoges, France, |
1994 |
25-year Retrospective (catalog), Robert Cumming, Cone of Vision, Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu. |
| 1994 | Blackboard Brain (installation), M.I.T., Cambridge, MA and the Contemporary Museum, Honolu, HI |
1993 |
Curt Marcus Gallery, New York, NY |
| 1988 | Castelli Graphics, New York, NY |
| 1988 | Robert Cumming: Intuitive Inventions, Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC |
| 1987 | Galerie Schmela, Dusseldorf, Germany |
| 1986 | Mechanical Illusions, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY |
| 1985 | University Art Museum, Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA |
| 1984 | Galerie Watari, Tokyo, Japan |
1982 |
Werkstatt fur Photographie, Berlin, Germany |
1981 |
Traveling Retrospective, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, Tasmania, Australia |
1979 |
Retrospective (catalog), Friends of Photography, Cannel, CA |
1978 |
Paris Biennale, Musee d'Art Modeme, Paris |
1976 |
Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA, 1976. |
Selected Group Exhibitions
| 2017-2020 | The Polaroid Project: At the Intersection of Art and Technology, (8-museum tour) |
| 2017 | All-Stars: Works from the Collection, SFMOMA |
| 2016 | Sight Reading: Photography and the Legible World, The Morgan Library & Museum, NY |
| The Shape of Things: Photographs from Robert B. Menschel, MoMA, NY | |
| 2014 | A World of its Own: Photographic Practices in the Studio, MoMA, NY |
| 2012 | Matt Connors, Robert Cumming, and Florian Morlat, Cherry and Martin, Los Angeles |
| Seismic Shift, California Museum of Photography, Riverside, CA | |
| Under the Big Black Sun: California Art 1974–1981, The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Los Angeles | |
| Backyard Oasis: The Swimming Pool in Southern California Photography, 1945-1982, Palm Springs Art Museum | |
| In Focus: Los Angeles, 1945–1980, The J. Paul Getty Museum | |
| To Infinity and Beyond, Heckscher Museum, Huntington, NY, 2008. |
|
| State of Mind: New California Art Circa 1970, Orange County Museum of Art, (5-museum tour), 2012 – 2014 | |
| 2008 | Artist’s Choice, Vik Muniz: Rebus, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY |
| 2006-2007 | Extra-Ordinary: The Everyday Object in American Art, (Whitney Museum collection) Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, TN, and Austin Museum, Austin, TX |
| 2003 | 125 Masterpieces from MoMA, The Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg and State Pushkin Museum, Moscow |
| 2001 | A Love Affair with Pictures, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX, 2001 |
| Azerty: Un abécédaire aléatoire autour des collections du Frac Limousin, Musée National d´Art Modern, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France | |
| 1997 | Metropolitan Museum, NY, (6-museum tour) 1997-1999. |
| Singular Impressions: the Monotype in America, The National Museum, Washington, DC | |
| 1995 | Pace, MacGill, Wildenstein Gallery, Los Angeles, CA |
| 1992 | Galerie Nichido, Tokyo, Japan |
| 1989 | International Biennial of Graphic Art, Lubliana, Slovenia |
| Projects & Portfolios, 25th National Print Exhibition, Brooklyn Museum, NY | |
| Image World: Art and Media Culture, Whitney Museum of American Art, NY | |
| 1988 | Castelli Graphics 1969-1988, Castelli Graphics, New York, NY |
| 1986 | Monumental Drawings, Brooklyn Museum, NY |
| 1983 | Drawings, Leo Castelli Gallery, New York, NY |
| Language, Drama, Source, Vision, The New Museum, New York, NY | |
| 1979 | Lis-79, International Exhibition of Drawing, Lisbon, Portugal |
| Fabricated to be Photographed, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA | |
| 1978-1982 | Mirrors and Windows, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, (traveled) |
| 1975 | Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY |
| Picture Puzzles, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY | |
| Narrative Art, Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels, Belgium | |
| 1973 | Minor White, Robert Heinecken, Robert Cumming: Photograph as Metaphor, Photograph as Object, Photograph as Document of Concept, California State University, Long Beach |
| 1971 | 24 Young Los Angeles Artists, Los Angeles County Museum of Art |
| 1970 | 9 Artists/9 Urban Spaces, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN |
| 1969 | Art by Telephone, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL |
Awards & Honors
| 2003 | Pollock-Krasner Grant, New York, NY |
| 1995 | Gottlieb Foundation Grant, New York, NY |
| 1990 | Angela Flowers Gallery Prize, 11th British Print Biennale, Bradford, England |
| 1985 | Creative Artist Award, Brandeis Univ., Waltham, MA |
| 1984 | Awards in the Visual Arts III, Winston-Salem, NC |
| 1981 | Artist-in-Residence Program, Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission, NY and Tokyo |
| 1981 | Guggenheim Fellowship, Guggenheim Foundation, NY |
| 1972, 1975, 1979 | National Endowment for the Arts Grants, Washington, DC |
| 1969 | Frank Logan Prize, Art Institute of Chicago |