Robert Birmelin

Robert Birmelin (born 1933) is an American symbolic painter, printmaker and draughtsman. In further contexts he is also known as August Robert or A. Robert Birmelin. He was born in Newark, New Jersey and currently resides in Leonia, New Jersey.

Birmelin is best known for his paintings and drawings capturing the performing of close physical involvement as experienced in the hobby and tensions of the urban crowd. He has with explored a range of other subjects, including landscape and recently, more untrustworthy themes dealing subsequent to memory and time, often employing double imagery. Since 2016 he has focused mainly upon drawing, producing several long horizontal narrative works, inspired by the format of Chinese and Japanese scrolls he has studied at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Drawing from life, from memory and imagination are central to his practice, strongly believing they yield more vigorous, personal visual imagery, than does the need of relying to photographic sources, as is common in the midst of many contemporary symbolic artists.