Robert Mallary

Robert Mallary (1917–1997) was an American abstract expressionist sculptor and a trailblazer in computer art.

Biography of Robert Mallary

Robert Mallary was born in 1917 in Toledo, Ohio. He was raised in Berkeley, California. From a young age, he had a keen interest in art and pursued his studies in Mexico City, attending the Escuela de Las Artes Del Libro in 1938–39, and later the Academy of San Carlos in 1942–43, where he was influenced by José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros. Additionally, he studied at the Painter's Workshop School in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1941.

While advancing his fine arts career, Mallary worked as an advertising Art Director in Los Angeles from 1945 to 1948 and continued as a commercial artist until 1954. His paintings, created with liquid polyester, were exhibited at the Urban Gallery in New York City in 1954.

He  taught at the California School of Art in Los Angeles from 1949 to 1950, followed by a position at the Hollywood Art Center from 1950 to 1954. He then served as Professor of Art at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque from 1955 to 1959. U

pon moving to New York City in 1959 to teach at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, Mallary became part of the vibrant New York art scene, mingling with notable figures such as Willem and Elaine de Kooning, Wayne Thiebaud, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler.

In his later years, Mallary experienced liver issues, likely related to the toxicity of the liquid polyesters he used in his abstract expressionist sculptures during the 1950s and '60s. He passed away from complications related to leukemia at Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1997, at the age of 79.

Robert Mallary’s Art Style

In the early 1960s, Mallary emerged as a prominent figure in the Neo-Dada or Junk Art movement, aligning with artists such as John Chamberlain, Richard Stankiewicz, and Claes Oldenburg. He developed a distinctive and experimental style by incorporating fragile found urban debris—such as discarded cardboard, wood, cloth rags, and later, tuxedos—into his work. He cast these materials in resin, transforming them into durable and permanent artworks.

In the mid-1950s, he began creating reliefs using a mixture of sand, straw, and polyester resin. These dark and somber pieces alluded to the region's landscape and, like much of his work, carried themes of foreboding. The imagery and titles often drew from classical mythology, political, and philosophical ideas, reflecting an underlying sense of doom.

After learning about the health risks associated with resin, he became intrigued by the potential of computers as artistic tools. In 1968, he showcased a work in London that is regarded as one of the first computer-designed sculptures.