Robert Vickrey | Magic realism artist, 84

Robert Vickrey, 84, a painter whose often unnerving depictions of shadow-streaked streets populated by nuns, clowns, or children at play made him a leading figure of the magic realism school, died Sunday at his home in Naples, Fla.

Mr. Vickrey, who mastered the Renaissance technique of egg tempera as a student at Yale University, used his technical skill to create hyper-real scenes suffused by an atmosphere of dread or impending disaster. He was an avant-garde filmmaker on the side, with a deep knowledge of expressionism and film noir, whose shadows, angles, and distortions he introduced into his paintings.

In the 1950s and '60s, he was a highly visible artist. He was included in no fewer than nine of the Whitney Museum of American Art's annual exhibitions showcasing contemporary art. He was also commissioned to paint dozens of portraits for the cover of Time, notably a portrait from life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for its Man of the Year issue in 1964.

As his style of painting fell out of favor, he was relegated to the margins of the art world. Critics did not always respond kindly to the more upbeat tone of his later painting, which seemed closer to Andrew Wyeth and Norman Rockwell.

In the 1980s, a reassessment of magic realism, and of overlooked artists like Paul Cadmus, Jared French and George Tooker, led to renewed interest in Mr. Vickery's work. He was the subject of a 1982 retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Art, Science, and Industry in Bridgeport, Conn., and a 2008 biography by Philip Eliasoph, Robert Vickrey: The Magic of Realism.

- N.Y. Times News Service