Robert Wilson (born October 4, 1941) is an American experimental theater stage director and playwright who has been described by The New York Times as "[America]'s - or even the world's - foremost vanguard 'theater artist.'" He has also worked as a choreographer, performer, painter, sculptor, video artist, and sound and lighting designer. Wilson is best known for his collaboration with Philip Glass and Lucinda Childs on Einstein on the Beach, which has been hailed as the representative work of drama in postmodernism.

Wilson was born in Waco, Texas, the son of Loree Velma (née Hamilton) and D.M. Wilson, a lawyer. He was stuttering and taken to a local dance instructor called Bird "Baby" Hoffman, who helped him overcome his stutter. After attending local schools, he studied business administration at the University of Texas from 1959 to 1962. He moved to Brooklyn, New York in 1963 to change fields, study art and architecture. At some point he went to Arizona to study architecture with Paolo Soleri at his desert complex. He received a BFA in architecture from the Pratt Institute in 1965. During this period, he also studied painting with artist George McNeil.

In 1993, he won the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Biennale for his installation work "Alice in bed". Currently, Robert Wilson has his own theater called "Theatre of Images".

His representative works include:

The King of Spain, 1969

The Life and Times of Sigmund Freud, 1969

Deafman Glance (film) (with Raymond Andrews), 1970

KA MOUNTAIN AND GUARDenia TERRACE: a story about a family and some people changing, 1972

The Life and Times of Joseph Stalin, 1973

A Letter for Queen Victoria, 1974

Einstein on the Beach (with Philip Glass), 1976

Death Destruction & Detroit, 1979

Death Destruction & Detroit II, 1987

The Black Rider: The Casting of the Twelve Magic Bullets (with William S. Burroughs and Tom Waits), 1990

Alice (musical, with Tom Waits and Paul Schmidt), 1992

Woyzeck (with Tom Waits), 2000

Jean de La Fontaine's The Fables, 2005