RICHARD MERKIN

Sometimes described as Rhode Island s most famous New York artist, Richard Merkin led a dual life for nearly 40 years - teaching at RISD while enjoying a celebrated painting career based in New York City. He has exhibited in countless gallery and museum shows in the US and abroad and is represented in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Institution, The Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum, the RISD museum and many others. In addition to contributing drawings and paintings to The New Yorker, Harper s, The New York Times, Sunday Magazine and several books, he was a contributing editor for Vanity Fair and a former style columnist for GQ. Merkin s honors include a Tiffany Foundation Fellowship and the Rosenthal Foundation Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Sadly, Richard Merkin passed away September 5, 2009. 


Museums and Selected Collections 

The American Federation of Arts, New York, NY 

Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY 

Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA 

First City Bank, Chicago, IL 

Fisk University Art Gallery, Nashville, TN 

Hallmark Collections, Kansas City, MO 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 

Miami-Dade Junior College, Miami, FL 

Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 

Minnesota Museum of Art, New York, NY 

Museum o f Art, Rhode Island School of Design, RI 

McClung Museum, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 

Pennsylvania Academy of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA 

Prudential Insurance Company, Boston, Ma 

Prudential Insurance Company, Newark, NJ 

Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 

Sara Robey Foundation, New York, NY 

Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 

State University of Brockport, Brockport, NY 

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY 



Selected Publications 

1986-2009 Contributing Editor, Vanity Fair... 1988-2009, New Yorker... 

1988-2009, style column, GQ...1997, Text and Illustration for the The Tijuana Bibles, published by Simon & Shuster, 1995, Illustrated book, Leagues Apart: the Men and Times of the Negro Baseball Leagues published by Morrow. 


1967 

Cover of the Beatles Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band Album
(Mr. Merkin appears in the back row, right center)