[1] He was born in Chicago, and from the early 1950s he created several series of paintings (Field Mouse, Apollo paintings, Hitchcock, Bern, Intimate Lightening) many of which are represented in the permanent collections of major museums as well as in corporate and private collections.

[2][3] His work has been exhibited in leading galleries in the U.S., Europe, and Japan.

The San Francisco Museum of Art held a retrospective of Natkin's work in 1969.

[3] Critic Peter Fuller has written extensively about Natkin's work and produced a documentary on the artist (with the BBC) which explored the relationship between art and psychoanalysis.

[3] He lived with his wife, painter Judith Dolnick, in Connecticut.