About the artist:

He was born in New York City on Aug. 18, 1923 to Max and Yetta (Spitzman) Strimban. Robert grew up in Glen Cove and once said he knew he wanted to be an artist since he was four years old. At age 12, he showed his paintings in Greenwich Village. He received a scholarship when he was in his teens to attend Leonardo Davinci art school and then entered Pratt on a scholarship at age 16. He attended Pratt until he was 17 ½, when WW II broke out. He received his mother’s permission to enter the Air Force from 1942 to 1945. He wanted to become a fighter bomber but his vision was not what it had to be to complete training. He was in the ground force and stationed in Burma, China and India. He was proud to share that he had driven the Burma wall before he was 18 years old, and he carved his first wood sculpture during this period, while in India. When he returned to the states after the war he worked in the advertising world creating illustrations for every major magazine in New York, as well as The New York Times and the National Observer; he created book jackets as well. His cover for Rachel Carson’s, The Sea Around Us, won the Art Director’s book award. Bob won many awards for his covers including for Forbes magazine. Robert met Irma (Ferguson) in art class at the studio of Chaim Gross, and they married in 1959. They had many adventures together. They did not have children but they always had dogs and they loved their dogs as family. The dogs traveled with them. They had a farm upstate, bought a Brownstone in Chelsea and renovated it over time. They rented rooms and Bob had a studio in the house. Louise Bourgeois, artist, was their next-door neighbor and friend. They had many dinner parties together. For a time, Bob and his brother had a commercial studio in the Chelsea Hotel when Janis Joplin, Sid Vicious and Andy Warhol were all coming and going through the Chelsea. It was a vibrant and exciting time for them to be in New York. Bob and Irma fought for the preservation of Chelsea, and won. They bought land in the Florida keys and spent 12 years driving there to stay in a non electric beach house, only accessible by boat. Bob and Irma moved to Cutchogue in 1983. His desire was to produce art full-time. Bob created many large outdoor metal sculptures, including those that can be found at Peconic Landing, East End Arts, and a corporate Plaza in Farmingdale. He has created hundreds of paintings and paper sculptures and paper illustrations as well. During the past year even though recuperating from illness, his passion for art never wained, he always worked on an art project. Art was his second love, Irma was his first.