Robert Moskowitz - Early Work, Rise To Fame (1959-1963)

Early Work, Rise To Fame (1959-1963)

Moskowitz's first serious body of paintings came from the discovery of a window shade hanging high in his studio space. Following lessons taken from Johns, Rauschenberg, and Marcel Duchamp, Moskowitz began to place intact objects, such as the window shade, directly on his paintings as a form of collage. This work was included in the exhibition Art of Assemblage organized in 1961 at the Museum of Modern Art which also included the work of Picasso, George Braque, Joseph Cornell and Robert Rauschenberg among many other influential artists. His work of this period, primarily untitled collage paintings, culminated in a solo exhibition at the Leo Castelli Gallery in 1962, in between solo exhibitions of Roy Lichtenstein and Frank Stella.