Robert Katona
Robert Katona | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1947 Ohio, U.S. |
| Known for | Flow Painting, Computer Art |
| Style | Surrealism, Techism |
| Website | robertkatona.com |
Robert Katona is known for developing the flow painting technique and creating a form of computer art, Techism.[1][2][3]
Biography[edit]
Katona was born in Ohio in 1947.[4] His father, a sociology professor, moved his family to Colorado shortly after Robert was born.[5] Both of his parents were teachers and provided the intellectual stimulus for him to develop quickly as an artist.[1] He began to draw at age 2 and turned to art as a full time profession after attending the University of Colorado.[1][5]
He is a falconer and has trained and flown many species of raptors including the peregrine falcon.[5]His knowledge of birds of prey has led to illustration contributions to the Raptor Research Foundation and the North American Falconers Association.[5]
Career[edit]
Katona first developed a realist technique by working from old masters and depicting still lives.[1][5] While experimenting with abstract art, he created a unique combination of abstract expressionism and figurative art, calling the technique flow painting.[1]
His method uses liquid acrylic poured onto canvas, creating a dynamic expanding composition.[1] When the paint is dry, Katona studies the color field and looks for shapes and images that suggest a theme.[1] He then paints these visions into the background with startling precision.[1] Deliberate distortion of the image blends with the flowing colors to create a painting of surprising contrast.[1]
In New York he invented a form of computer art, Techism, with colored plexiglass and electronics.[2][3] He achieved an artificial look: slick, hard-edge, high tech; a computer art that goes beyond printouts or photographs.[3] For him plexiglass is an excellent material in the way it mimics the computer screen, and the colors are electric and fluorescent.[3]
Based on computer generated images, executed on a large scale in plastic, Katona's compositions give material form to the cosmos of the computer screen.[2] He merges technology and imagination to make an illusory world actual, a cunning reversal of computerized dematerialization.[2]
Angus Cameron of Alfred Knopf Publishing described the pencil drawings for the book, Golden Eagle Country, as “stunning and sensationally beautiful”.[5][6] Barbara Haddad of the Denver Post wrote of his “remarkable drawing” done “with an incredibly sensitive hand.”[5][7]
Elizabeth Exler of Manhattan Arts reviewed Computerworks as an “incredibly thought-provoking exhibition, and each work is as fascinating as the next.”[3] Ed MaCormack of New York Artspeak described Techism: Art of the 21st Century: “In these and other pieces in this dazzling, highly entertaining solo exhibition, Robert Katona creates powerful metaphors for the technological dilemma of computerized civilization.”[2]
His versatility as an artist has gained Katona a worldwide reputation, including an award from the Society of Illustrators in New York for his work in Golden Eagle Country.[1] His art appears in collections: Willie Nelson, John Denver, former U.S. Senator Gary Hart, the Air Force Academy, and the Royal Family of Saudi Arabia, and in museums: Museum of Art, Munich, Taipei Museum of Art, Fine Arts Museum of Long Island, NY, and the Biennal in Barcelona, Spain.[1] Katona lives with his wife and two children in Colorado.[1]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Robert Katona: Exercise in Contrasts, Galerie Royal News, 1993, New Orleans, LA"
- ^ a b c d e "Ed McCormack, Robert Katona and the Dilemma of the Computer Age, Artspeak, New York, NY, May 16, 1990"
- ^ a b c d e "Elizabeth Exler, COMPUTERWORKS: A New Artform, Manhattan Arts/15, NewYork, NY, January-February, 1992"
- ^ "Bio". Robert Katona. Retrieved 10 October 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Gary Michael, Falconry and Imagination, Southwest Art Magazine, feature article, p.58-65, July, 1978"
- ^ "Angus Cameron, Alfred Knopf letter, August 14, 1973"
- ^ "Barbara Haddad, Liturgical Arts Exhibit Worthy, Denver Post, April 7, 1968"