Robert Graham

Robert Graham (1938–2008) was a Mexican-born American sculptor renowned for his monumental bronze works that celebrate the human form and grace public spaces across the United States. Born in Mexico City on August 19, 1938, Graham moved to California at the age of 11 following the death of his father. He pursued formal art education at San Jose State College and the San Francisco Art Institute, completing his studies in 1964

While Robert Graham is best known for his monumental bronze sculptures celebrating the human form, his work in printmaking reveals a more intimate, yet equally compelling dimension of his artistic vision. Graham’s prints, like his sculptures, are grounded in a deep reverence for the human body, especially the female figure, which he rendered with elegance, precision, and sensuality. Using techniques such as lithography and etching, he explored variations in form, gesture, and composition—often focusing on isolated torsos or nudes that echo the classical proportions found in his three-dimensional work.

His prints are notable for their clarity of line and subtle tonal variation, allowing him to convey a sculptural presence on a two-dimensional surface. These works offer insight into Graham’s process and his ongoing study of anatomy, movement, and volume. In many ways, his printmaking served as both an extension and a distillation of his sculptural practice—translating bronze into ink, and mass into mark. Though less public than his large-scale commissions, Graham’s prints provide an important facet of his oeuvre, reflecting his enduring fascination with the body as a site of beauty, power, and expression.

Graham's early career in the late 1960s featured solo exhibitions in prominent galleries across the U.S. and Europe. His initial works included small-scale wax sculptures set in miniature dioramas, depicting human interactions with a candid, sometimes erotic, lens. These pieces showcased his meticulous attention to anatomical detail and set the stage for his later large-scale public commissions.

In 1984, Graham gained national attention with the "Olympic Gateway" at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, featuring two nude bronze torsos modeled after athletes. This work, commissioned for the Summer Olympics, sparked public discourse due to its nudity but ultimately solidified his reputation as a significant public artist

In his personal life, Graham married actress Anjelica Huston in 1992. The couple resided in a distinctive home in Venice, California, designed by Graham himself, reflecting a blend of their artistic sensibilities.

Museum Exhibitions
1999 Kemper Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri
1997 Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City
1994 San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California
1988 Los Angeles, County Museum of Art, Los Angeles
1984 ARCO Center for Visual Arts, Los Angeles
1982 Norton Gallery and School of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida
1982 Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
1982 Joslyn Art Center, Omaha, Nebraska
1982 Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, Iowa
1982 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California
1981 Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles
1981 School of Visual Arts, New York
1981 Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
1979 Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, New York
1978 Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles
1972 Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas,Texas
1971 Kunstverein, Hamburg, Germany
1970 Whitechapel Gallery, London, England