Robert Mangold was born on 12 October 1937 in North Tonawanda, New York, and studied fine arts at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut (1960-63). He held his first solo exhibition at Thibaut Gallery, New York, in 1964, but throughout the 1960s and early 1970s he exhibited regularly with Fischbach Gallery, New York. During this time he held various teaching positions: at the School of Visual Arts, New York (from 1963), at Hunter College, New York (1964-65) and at a number of summer art schools elsewhere. In 1971 he was given a retrospective at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, and in 1982 the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, arranged an exhibition of his paintings from 1970-82 and simultaneously published a catalogue raisonné of his paintings from the period 1964-82. Mangold has participated in many important survey exhibitions of contemporary American art. He lives and works in New York.