Robert Kipness

Robert Kipniss (born Brooklyn, New York, February 1, 1931) is an American painter and printmaker. His paintings, lithographs, and mezzotints share stylistic characteristics and subject matter, typically depicting trees, landscapes, and occasional interiors—frequently with a landscape visible beyond. No human figures are present, and all forms are reduced to their essentials. Kipniss' use of exceptionally subtle tones and hues creates an overall atmospheric effect. His works have been described as conveying solitude and inward experience.

The print and the one-of-a-kind etched copper plate were purchased in 2006 at the Weinstein Gallery in San Francisco. The piece represents a stark contrast in life, driven by light, reciprocity, and relationship—without light, there is no dark; without dark, light does not exist. It highlights the subtle beauty, shape, and design of common elements such as tree limbs.

Kipniss studied at the Art Students League in 1947, attended Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio from 1948–1950, and later studied at the University of Iowa, receiving a BA in English literature in 1952 and an MFA in painting and art history in 1954. Although he has painted in oil throughout his life, Kipniss focused on stone lithography during his early career and has worked predominantly in mezzotint since the early 1990s.