Robert Cottingham: An American Alphabet

November 18, 2025 – February 14, 2026

 

 

Robert Cottingham (American, b. 1935) is renowned for his depictions of American life through his work featuring building facades, neon signs, movie marquees, and storefronts. Though often linked to Photorealism, Cottingham considers himself a realist, following in the footsteps of Edward Hopper and inspired by Pop artists like Robert Indiana and James Rosenquist.

 

In 1974, supported by a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, Cottingham traveled by Greyhound across the Northeast, photographing 27 cities and collecting thousands of slides. These images became the foundation for An American Alphabet, a 15-year project exploring the beauty of disappearing signage and American typography. Using cropping and a focus on formal elements—form, color, and line—he created the series in graphite, gouache, and oil.

 

Cottingham’s fascination with signs began with childhood visits to Times Square, where giant advertisements and marquees left a lasting impression. His prints, produced with Tandem Press in Madison, Wisconsin, reflect a lifelong passion for the visual language of everyday America—what he calls the “tools of the Everyman.”