Robert Zakanitch

Robert Zakanitch (born 1935) is an American painter known as a pioneering figure of the Pattern and Decoration movement that emerged in the 1970s as a reaction against minimalism. His large-scale canvases are characterized by exuberant, densely layered floral and decorative motifs drawn from folk art, textiles, wallpaper, and domestic ornamentation. Zakanitch's embrace of the decorative as a legitimate and politically charged mode of fine art helped legitimize ornamental aesthetics within the contemporary art world.