Dobkin studied in New York at the City College of New York, Columbia Unversity, the Art Students League, and the Leonardo da Vinci Art School. In his paintings Dobkin brought an expressionistic style and dark rich palette to figurative subjects.

His work is in the permanent collections of many institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum, the Whitney Museum and the Museum of Modern Art here; the Hirshhorn Gallery, the Corcoran Gallery and the Library of Congress in Washington; the Philadelphia Art Museum, the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio; the Newark Museum, the Phoenix Fine Arts Museum and the Tel Aviv Museum.