Natkin’s career quickly gained momentum, marked by his inclusion in the Young America exhibition at the Whitney Museum. His characteristic Apollo pictorial organization, noted for its vertical structure, first emerged in 1961, and flourished between 1962 and 1964. A period of personal disturbance in 1964 led to the eruption of markedly symmetrical organizations in his painting. By 1965, influenced in part by jazz singers like Nina Simone and Billie Holliday, Natkin developed a series of hard-edged, architectural Apollos and grid paintings, while also teaching at the Pratt Institute.
The Field Mouse paintings began in 1967. Natkin received major recognition, including a retrospective solo exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Art in 1969. In 1970, the Natkin family left New York for West Redding, Connecticut, as the Field Mouse series evolved toward much bolder colors and forms.
A significant technical discovery occurred in 1971 when he developed a method of painting using textured cloths wrapped around sponges. This technique led to the start of the Intimate Lighting series, a body of work influenced by a Cubist exhibition. After visiting England in 1974, he initiated the Bath series, which was characterized by a muting of colors.
The mid-1970s saw a strong revival of earlier concepts: the Face series began in 1975, and the Apollo paintings were “spectacularly revived”. That year, he also executed a commission for a giant mural in Chicago. Around 1977, influenced by a visit to the Klee Foundation, Natkin began the Bern paintings, many executed on paper, endeavoring to “recapture the expressionism of [his] youth”. His career received documentary recognition from the BBC in 1980, the same year he began writing regularly, contributing art criticism to publications like Modern Painters. Later accomplishments included executing major murals at Rockefeller Center (1991) and the Millennium Hotel (1992).