Age, Biography and Wiki

Richard Merkin was born on 1938 in Brooklyn, New York, is an American artist. Discover Richard Merkin's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. Learn How rich is he in this year and how he spends money? Also learn how he earned most of networth at the age of 71 years old?

Popular As N/A
Occupation N/A
Age 71 years old
Zodiac Sign
Born 1938
Birthday 1938
Birthplace Brooklyn, New York
Date of death 5 September, 2009
Died Place Croton-on-Hudson, New York
Nationality United States

We recommend you to check the complete list of Famous People born on 1938. He is a member of famous artist with the age 71 years old group.

Richard Merkin Height, Weight & Measurements

At 71 years old, Richard Merkin height not available right now. We will update Richard Merkin's Height, weight, Body Measurements, Eye Color, Hair Color, Shoe & Dress size soon as possible.

Physical Status
Height Not Available
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Who Is Richard Merkin's Wife?

His wife is Heather G. Merkin

Family
Parents Not Available
Wife Heather G. Merkin
Sibling Not Available
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Richard Merkin Net Worth

His net worth has been growing significantly in 2023-2024. So, how much is Richard Merkin worth at the age of 71 years old? Richard Merkin’s income source is mostly from being a successful artist. He is from United States. We have estimated Richard Merkin's net worth, money, salary, income, and assets.

Net Worth in 2024 $1 Million - $5 Million
Salary in 2024 Under Review
Net Worth in 2023 Pending
Salary in 2023 Under Review
House Not Available
Cars Not Available
Source of Income artist

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Timeline

1920

Merkin's fascination with the 1920s and 1930s defined his art and shaped his identity as a professional dandy.

Many of his works depict the interwar years, painting narrative scenes in bright colors of jazz musicians, film stars, writers, and sports heroes.

Merkin was as well known for his outré sense of clothing style and collections of vintage pornography (in particular Tijuana bibles) as he was for his painting and illustration work.

1938

Merkin was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1938, and held an undergraduate degree in fine art from Syracuse University in 1960, a Master's Degree in art from Michigan State University in 1961, and Master of Fine Arts in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 1963.

1962

In 1962–63 he received a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Fellowship in Painting and, in 1975, the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award from the National Institute of Arts and Letters.

1963

Merkin began teaching at RISD in 1963 and remained there for 42 years, during which time he built his reputation in New York.

1966

Four decades later, Merkin stated of his experience: I went to England in 1966 ... and I got to meet a lot of artists that I enormously admired: David Hockney, Peter Blake, R. B. Kitaj ...

I spent that summer in London, and I became a close friend of Peter Blake ... [S]ix months later, I got a photograph in the mail of the cover of Sgt. Pepper's ... The photograph of me comes from a very early exhibition catalogue of mine ...

I sold the photograph ... for [probably] $200.

That photograph would be worth $10,000 now!

People say to me, "Didn't you love the Beatles?"

I'd say, "... I didn't give a goddamn about the Beatles!"

I loved Bill Evans, I love Bobby Short.

Now I like [Sgt. Pepper's], it's grown on me over time.

1967

After he moved back to New York in 1967, he commuted every week to RISD to teach painting and drawing.

At RISD, Merkin was loved and revered.

One alum described him as "fearless beyond measure."

Some notable students Merkin taught at RISD include Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth of the band Talking Heads and Martin Mull.

Before Merkin was well known as an artist, his newfound friend Peter Blake featured him on the cover of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), on the top row between Fred Astaire and a 'Vargas Girl'.

1974

Merkin was briefly featured in a party scene in the 1974 film The Great Gatsby.

1986

Beginning in 1986, Merkin was a contributing editor for Vanity Fair.

In 1986, Merkin told the Daily News Record, a fashion publication: "Dressing, like painting, should have a residual stability, plus punctuation and surprise ... Somewhere, like in Krazy Kat, you've got to throw the brick."

Upon his death, his friend, menswear designer Alan Flusser said of him, "He was one of the few men who knew how to wear clothes, in a bespoke Bohemian manner. ... You have to be way beyond fashion to do this."

Merkin's friend, the writer Tom Wolfe wrote: "He was the greatest of that breed, the Artist Dandy, since Sargent, Whistler and Dali. Like Dali, he had one of the few remaining Great Mustaches in the art world. ... What made Merkin so sought after as an illustrator was his eccentric approach to modernist art. He used Modernism's all-over flat designs--that is, every square inch of the canvas was covered by flat, unmodulated blocs of color of equal value, creating not three but two dimensions--but his works were full of people, rendered in the same fashion, in comic poses and situations and extravagantly caricatured."

The New Yorker noted that Merkin "loved and evoked the great spirit of the nineteen-twenties, thirties, and forties in his work – he was, moreover, 'a connoisseur of the good life.'"

1988

Starting in 1988, he was a regular contributor of illustrations to The New Yorker, as well as Harper's and The New York Times' Sunday magazine.

From 1988–1991, he wrote a monthly style column called "Merkin on Style" for Gentlemen's Quarterly.

Merkin also designed several album covers for the jazz record label Chiaroscuro Records for artists such as Mary Lou Williams, Ruby Braff, and Ellis Larkins.

2009

Richard Marshall Merkin (1938 – September 5, 2009) was an American painter, illustrator and arts educator.

Merkin died on September 5, 2009, at his home in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, after a long illness.

He was 70 years old.

He was survived by his wife Heather Merkin.

Merkin's career at The New Yorker spanned twenty years, three covers, and nearly three hundred illustrations.

Merkin is represented in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, The Smithsonian Institution, Brooklyn Museum and the Whitney Museum, among others.

Merkin was known for his dandy sensibility.

He told The New York Times, "I deplore fashion. ... What I like is style."