Robert Craig: REVIVAL

December 2022

Who is Robert Craig?
Is he a genius? A charlatan? Depending upon who you ask, you are likely to get completely different and rather polarizing opinions.

Craig was the subject of a short film produced and hosted by Ron English, and he enjoyed a reputation as a sort of eccentric recluse. He was one of the art world’s best kept secrets and one of this century’s true masters of photorealistic painting. But shortly after his last solo exhibition in 2016, and at the apex of his decades-long career, controversy about his technique and accusations about his methods coupled with a well-hidden but out-of-control chemical dependency came to overshadow the culmination of his life’s work.

In the years since, Robert Craig has all but disappeared, but he remains a cautionary enigma. He was a talented artist who came to depend heavily on shortcuts and balderdash to compensate for failing health and an impossible production schedule. But even in the later works which utilized camera obscura, projection and even digital printing as part of the baseline to his underpainting, his combination of airbrush and illustration were so seamlessly applied that the final product was completely hand-painted and nearly entirely masked the process.

Long Gone John, the great patron of pop surrealism, had this to say about Robert Craig:

“There was a bit of controversy concerning his “technique” with a lot of mud being slung, but I’ve had many talented artists examine them closely who seem to agree they are in fact acrylic and oil with airbrushed embellishments…Robert had some mysterious illness when I bought [his] paintings and he was always trying to scrape up enough money to move from upstate New York to warmer climate in an effort to improve his health…he disappeared…I’m hoping he did not die…I decided years ago I didn’t actually care if he deceived people about his process…I talked to him a lot on the phone and I found him to be a gracious and kind person…the important part was the end result and no matter what avenues he traveled to arrive at his destination I think he was incredibly talented and for me the mystery just adds to his legacy…”

REVIVAL is hopefully the first step in rehabilitating Robert Craig’s reputation and re-establishing his career. The paintings in this exhibition were all created between 2003 and 2015 (predating the controversy) and each has been examined inch-by-inch with a conservator’s loop. These are all 100% acrylic and oil paintings with the occasional pencil mark. Most are rolled canvases, some have been removed from stretchers while some remain stretched, and one is actually framed. It was important to show the full canvas surface where possible to showcase that these are indeed paintings and not photographs. They are also priced far below the works featured in his last highly publicized and sold-out show. In fact, the most of the paintings in this collection are comparatively discounted by half or more.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Perhaps best known as the creator of Joe Camel for the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco company, Robert Craig was a Madison Avenue art director in the same era that produced Richard Prince and Jeff Koons. He transitioned to fine art in the 1990s and enjoyed high profile representation for several years before a nervous breakdown sidelined him. Much of the artist’s biographical information remains shrouded in secret, and most of what can be found online has been invented by the artist himself. His art has been museum exhibited and collected, and his technique has been praised by some of the biggest names and publications in the art world.

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