20|21 Art 
29 September 2022
20|21 Art 
196

Robert Natkin 1930–2010

Untitled (from the Hitchcock series)

1985
acrylic on canvas 14⅜ h × 15⅛ w in (37 × 38 cm)
estimate: $3,000–5,000
result: $7,500
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Signed to lower right ‘Natkin’.
provenance: Gimpel and Weitzenhoffer Ltd., New York | Private Collection

This work will ship from Rago in Lambertville, New Jersey.

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Alfred Hitchcock stood before the movie business–a self-devouring demon if ever there was one–and controlled it with the grace of Shiva. For years appreciated merely as an entertainer, a purveyor of languorous romance and heroic bravado spiced with horror, he is increasingly respected for the power and originality of his cinematic strategies. What is it that lifts his work beyond the routine “who done it” and spy genres? His films, which can be viewed over and over again, at first, seem slight; but with closer study one discovers true terrible contradictory feelings underneath. Through his playfulness, dark acts of lust and violence become tolerable, even enjoyed and romanticized.

Robert Natkin, Robert Natkin: Recent Paintings from the Hitchcock Series exhibition catalogue, Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer Ltd., New York, 1985

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