Richenburg's most distinctive achievement was the body of work that art historian Bonnie Grad called the "Black" paintings, created between 1958 and 1964, when he pursued "the dynamic tension and energy generated by the contrast and interplay between color and blackness."[5] These paintings, often grand in size, attracted favorable reviews not only from Sandler, but also from such critics as Dore Ashton and Fairfield Porter, and author James A. Michener. Porter wrote, "...Richenburg's painting...seems to be specifically about energy,"[6] while Ashton responded to the huge abstract canvases by observing that "His image of a pitch-black place cut through by flickering neon light is persistently urban and nocturnal."[7] A sense of mystery arises in many of these layered paintings, which prompted poet Marianne Moore to suggest to Richenburg on a visit to his studio that one large work in particular suggested to her countless "secret boxes, opening up each a little world of its own."[8]
Although Richenburg's career faltered with the advent of Pop Art and his relocation to Ithaca, New York (where he taught at Cornell University), it was a fortuitous visit in 1986 by Grad to Richenburg's studio in the Springs on Long Island, where he lived with his second wife, artist Margaret Kerr, that led to new appreciation of his art. Grad's exhibitions, mounted at the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University in 1993 and the next year at the Pollock-Krasner House and Study Center in East Hampton and the University Art Gallery at the State University of New York at Stony Brook (Stony Brook University), put the artist back in the spotlight. Articles about Richenburg's life story and his work appeared in the Boston Globe, the Boston Herald, Newsday and the New York Times, among other publications.
Grad, Bonnie L., Robert Richenburg: Abstract Expressionist. Exhibition Catalog for the Rose Art Museum. Brandeis University, 1993. OCLC47712937
Landau, Ellen G., "Robert Richenburg: What Lies Beneath," in Robert Richenburg. David Findlay Jr., Gallery, 2004. OCLC68181051
Long, Robert, Robert Richenburg: The Richard Zahn Collection. Sidney Mishkin Gallery, 2006. ISBN9780977757138OCLC76046757
Robert Richenburg: Works on Paper from the 1940s. David Findlay Jr., Inc., 2005 OCLC71224786
Robert Richenburg Abstract Expressionism 1950s-New York School
Sandler, Irving H., "New York Letter," Art International, vol. 3, April 1961.
Dantzic, Cynthia Maris (2006). 100 New York painters. Atglen, Pa.: Schiffer. ISBN9780764325434.
Herskovic, Marika (2003). American abstract expressionism of the 1950s : an illustrated survey with artists' statements, artwork, and biographies. Franklin Lakes, NJ: New York School Press. ISBN0967799414.
Robert Zaller, Robert Richenburg. "EI" Magazine of European Art Center (EUARCE) of Greece, 12st issue 1995 p. 12-12 (and translation in greek language: Lily Bita, p.40-42)