Robert Weingarten's photographs take us inside the mind of the artist. Divorcing himself from conventional portraiture, he places the artist’s environment and its periphery at the forefront of artistic creation.

By photographing extreme close-ups of palettes and work surfaces, Weingarten probes the perception of light and color. The resulting images range from raw materials (such as Ed Ruscha’s cotton ball with pigment), drippings on a sink (in Ed Moses’ studio), random brush strokes and writing on a wall (in David Salle’s studio), an accumulation of paint stains on a table (in Red Grooms’ studio), floor drippings (as seen in the studio of Jim Dine) to artists’ actual palettes and paintings (as in the case of Jasper Johns, Chuck Close and Fernando Botero).

Displayed as large-scale photographs, Weingarten’s Palettes reveals the intimate moments with these behind-the-scenes objects, applauding painting practice and technology as the conduit for sensational visual experiences and inviting us to widen our collective lens by zooming in to our everyday surroundings.

The exhibition addresses themes including artistic creativity, color and color theory, painting techniques, and the physicality of art objects.

WORKS
44 photographs

DIMENSIONS
From approx. 17 x 26 inches to approx. 44 x 64 inches

SPACE REQUIREMENTS
120 linear feet (37 linear meters)

INQUIRIES
exhibitions@curatorial.org | 626.577.0044 

FEE
Please inquire.

EXHIBITION SCHEDULE
Rockwell Museum | Corning, New York
September 26, 2025–January 5, 2026

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Robert Weingarten was born in 1941 and raised in New York City. Now based out of Los Angeles, Weingarten’s photographs have been included in over 100 exhibitions worldwide. His work is included in the permanent collections of more than 35 museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts | Houston, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the George Eastman House, and the National Gallery of Art. Previous projects include Earthscapes, Another America: The Amish, and 6:30 AM Series.

On the occasion of announcing the new traveling exhibition, Curatorial sat down with Robert Weingarten to discuss the inception of his Palettes series, the evolution of his metaphorical portraits, and how painting has influenced his career in photography.