Background
Robert was born on August 18, 1923 in New York City, United States. Son of Max and Yetta (Spencer) Strimban.
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Robert Strimban
Edit ProfileEducation
Diploma, Pratt Institute, 1942.
Career
Robert was a partner, designer in Strimban Design in New York City from 1946 to 1959. He worked as a designer, self-employed from 1959 to 1990. Since 1959 he worked as a sculptor in New York City and Cutchogue in New York, United States. Growing up in Glen Cove I loved going to the beach. When I was only four, I played in the hot sands and learned to swim. That same year my ability to draw surfaced. My skills developed to where I was sketching nude models when I was eleven. I graduated high school winning a scholarship to Pratt Institute. It was at Pratt that I was introduced to the world of Modern Art. Picasso, Braque, Miro, Matisse, and Paul Klee, each had their unique vision of reality. I read about them, studied, and analyzed their paintings. At first, they seemed strange and wild. But as time passed I saw the thought, imagination and above all the structure and sensitivity each work possessed.
I desperately wanted to find my own vision. I immersed myself in philosophy, mythology, anthropology, and music. It was in classical music that I found the similarity of visual abstraction to the composition of music. After graduating from art school I worked as a freelance graphic designer and illustrator. I worked for major publications and ad agencies. I did covers for Forbes, Business Week, Fortune and the New York Times. I won awards and had a studio in the Chelsea Hotel in the sixties. It was an exciting time. I knew Viva, Shirley Clark, Andy Warhol, Janis Joplin, and many other creative writers and artists. It was at this time I made a sculpture of Charles de Gaulle. It was on exhibit in the lobby of the Chelsea Hotel for three years.
I always knew that I wanted to devote all my time to art and it was a difficult decision for me to give up my commercial career. I would need time and a larger space to develop my ideas. In l986 my wife Irma and I sold our brownstone in Chelsea and moved to the North Fork of Long Island, NY. I loved to walk at the water's edge. There I would pause and have conversations with my brain. I felt part of the light that moved shadows of pebbles in the sand and the sounds of the waves on the rising tide. My mind was overflowing with ideas. The sculpture was always a part of my life. There is a sensuality in working with your hands and inventing forms. Sculpture defines the space and the air it displaces, which is alive and fluid, moving in, around, and through the forms. I want my work to be part of nature and not intrude on it. As the sun moves from east to west, casting shadows and patterns within the work in itself, in essence, a new sculpture is created with each passing hour. I chose aluminum because it reflects the colors around it and is impervious to the weather. I also create painted wood assemblages and at present, I am working on a series "Couples". These are abstract carvings of human relationships. My inspiration comes from my love of nature, animals and the human condition.
Connections
Robert married to Irma Ferguson on August 1, 1959.
