Robert Lostutter

Last updated
Robert Lostutter
Born1939 (age 85–86)
Emporia, KS
Nationality American
Known for Painting

Robert Lostutter (born 1939) is a Chicago-based artist. He was a member of the Chicago Imagists, a breakaway group of surrealist iconoclasts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago who showed in the Hyde Park Art Center in 1969 and later.

Contents

Lostutter has stated that his human-bird hybrids, painted in meticulous water colors, are self-portraits that express the idea that people share traits with birds. [1] While painting, Lostutter works from light to dark and then recreates the image dark to light. [2] He will repeat this process two to three times to reach this ideal look. These paintings would sometimes be accompanied by a poem of his that enforces the meanings behind them. [3]

His artwork was inspired by the works of artists such as Richard Lindner and his teacher at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, John Rogers Cox. [4] He produced a series based on the works from printmaker Toyohara Kunichika. He got the inspiration from seeing his prints being used as wrapping papers in a shipping container he received. [5] Birds were a source of inspiration for Lostutter, which stemmed from his experiences with his grandfather and from different tropical birds he saw on a trip to Mexico in the 1970s. [6]

Publications

In 1964 Lostutter illustrated "The Things That Are", a book of poems for children by Adrien Stoutenburg, published by the Reilly & Lee Company of Chicago.

Collections

Robert Lostutter's art is in the collections of:

References

  1. James Yood writes about Robert Lostutter in Artforum, January 1993
  2. Alan Artner. “Watercolor Man Bird's eye view of iconic Chicago artist in 25-year retrospective”. Chicago Tribune. July 30, 2006. https://www.corbettvsdempsey.com/documents/244/2006-07-30-Chicago_Tribune.pdf
  3. Camper, Fred. “Wild at Heart”. READER. November 10,1998. https://www.corbettvsdempsey.com/documents/246/1998-12-10-Lostutter-Wild-at-Heart.pdf
  4. Christoph, Ella.  “Art 50 2012: Chicago’s Artists’ Artists”. New City. September 19,2012. http://corbettvsdempsey.com/documents/242/2012-09-19-Lostutter-Newcity-50-Artists.pdf
  5. “Robert Lostutter.” Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, December 29, 2023. https://www.mmoca.org/learn/teaching-pages/robert-lostutter/


  1. ↑ "Robert Lostutter". Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. Retrieved 2025-10-28.
  2. ↑ "Robert Lostutter". Madison Museum of Contemporary Art. Retrieved 2025-10-28.
  3. ↑ Camper, Fred (December 10, 1998). "Wild At Heart". READER.
  4. ↑ Artner, Alan (July 30, 2006). "Watercolor Man". Chicago Tribune.
  5. ↑ Christoph, Ella (September 19, 2012). "Art 50 2012: Chicago's Artist's Artist". Newcity.
  6. ↑ "Robert Lostutter". corbettvsdempsey.com. Retrieved 2025-10-28.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.