In 1971, several older artists encouraged Robert to move to New York.

His first trip there was with a friend. During that time, he sublet the studio of Manny Farber, and both were doing some work for Jack Beal. While there, he met Chuck Close, who was working one floor below Beal’s loft on what would become his first oversized portraits. He was already deeply impressed by Beal’s paintings from the 1960s, in which figures and abstract elements were combined into powerful and vividly colored compositions.

His exploration of realism began in earnest in 1976. On a trip east, he visited Beal at his upstate New York farm, where Beal had built a studio to undertake a major commission. He was preparing to begin work on four monumental canvases, each measuring 12 by 12 feet, commissioned by the General Services Administration. In celebration of the United States Bicentennial, a number of artists had received grants to produce public artworks. Beal’s project was an allegorical history of labor in the United States, intended for installation in the Department of Labor building in Washington, D.C. What began as a visit turned into a year-long stay, during which he assisted with the project.

That experience marked the beginning of his own sustained exploration of realism. Many of the elements that had already interested him remained central, but the work now incorporated a deeper engagement with spatial composition. Color relationships became even more significant as he developed his approach. His own version of realism continued to evolve after he returned to the West Coast.

At the same time, realism was beginning to re-emerge in the broader art world. This resurgence was reflected in exhibitions such as Contemporary American Realism at the Palm Springs Desert Museum, which surveyed the diverse realist practices that had developed in the late twentieth century.