B. 1935. Robert Cottingham lives and works on an eighteenth century New England farm, but the subject matter he paints is strictly urban. Tattoo parlors, seamy bar fronts, five-and-dime stores, trashy movie marquees, or the advertising on a pancake house are all the urban symbols he utilizes to construct his complex paintings. He ferrets out the architectural details, symbols, and letter fragments of facades from the 1940s and '50s, giving us a glimpse of a true American folk art; garish, trite, yet somehow endearing.

Cottingham is generally referred to as a "photorealist." The term, in use for about thirty years, refers to work that has a clarity and "truth-to-the-eye" that is associated with photography. It is misleading to think that photorealism is an attempt to replicate photography in paint. Nor is it accurate to assume that the success of a work relies on a technique that is dependent upon the projection of a photograph or transparency onto canvas or paper.