Robert Dash


Photograph courtesy The Madoo Conservancy.

Robert Dash was born in downtown New York in 1931. He studied literature and anthropology at The University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. Having no formal training as a painter, he “bought a can of white and a can of black and sloshed them around.” In 1959, Dash traveled to Maine with Alex Katz, and soon thereafter began visiting Fairfield Porter in his home and studio in Southampton.

In 1967, Dash relocated permanently to Sagaponack, to the home he christened Madoo. Here he was freely devoted to painting, poetry, and gardening. Throughout the 1970s, Dash was regarded as an accomplished painter for his depictions of a now all but vanished Sagaponack landscape. The 1980s and ‘90s were marked by works with a gestural brushstroke, loaded surfaces and personal iconography leading up to his highly regarded Florilegium and Sagg Main series from the 2000s. Dash died in 2013.

Primary Medium: Painting, prints

Primary Stylistic Term: Landscape expressionist

HAHS Affiliations: Dash was friends with fellow East Hampton residents Victor and Mabel D’Amico.

Fun Fact: Robert Dash first started painting with Alex Katz in the late 1950s.

Recommended Publications: Notes From Madoo by Robert Dash; A Walk Through Madoo by Robert Dash