Robert blackburn artist biography
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In 1938, he took classes in lithography at Harlem Community Art Center, before studying at the Art Students League from 1940 to 1943. The Studio Museum has presented his work in exhibitions such as New York/Chicago WPA and The Black Artist (1977–78); Impressions/Expressions: Black American Graphics (1979–80); and Challenge of the Modern: African-American Artists 1925–1945 (2003).
Exhibitions and Events
Work on Paper, Print, Robert Blackburn
Bob Blackburn
Robert Hamilton Blackburn was known as a "printmaker's printmaker"; if you wanted to make prints you made your way to his workshop in Chelsea [New York City].
Blackburn credited Koppelman with saving the Workshop, and in 1992, Blackburn, Barnet, and Koppelman received a New York Artists Equity Award for their "dedicated service to the printmaking community."[6]
Blackburn's most productive period as an artist and printmaker was between the late 1950s and the early 1970s.[4] During this period he produced a large body of abstract still lifes and color compositions, mostly in lithography.
Robert Blackburn
Robert Hamilton Blackburn (December 12, 1920 – April 21, 2003) was an African-American artist, teacher, and master printmaker.
Blackburn was born in Summit, New Jersey, to Janet Chambers and Robert Archeball Blackburn, who were from Jamaica, and he grew up in Harlem, where his family moved when he was seven years old.
In the early 1950s, Blackburn and Barnet produced a suite of Barnet's lithographs that were a technical tour de force, requiring up to seventeen colors and multiple stones in the printing process. At the Art Students League, Blackburn won a School Arts League Award and an Art Students League Working Scholarship for study. He took classes at the Harlem Art Workshop; attended events at Charles Alston’s 306 studio, where he was one of the youngest participants; and studied with sculptor Augusta Savage.
Off the main space, little rooms opened up: edition rooms for private concentration, a darkroom, the print collection.
Blackburn was born in Summit, New Jersey, on December 12, 1920, and he passed away on April 21, 2003, in New York City.
From 1934 to 1935 he attended art classes at the Harlem YMCA, and around 1936 became friendly with artists Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight. Between 1943 and 1948 he supported himself with difficulty with arts-related freelance work, producing maps, charts and other graphics. In 1988, Blackburn and the nonprofit Printmaking Workshop received a Governor's Art Award from the New York State Council on the Arts.
He died in New York City.[7]
On September 18, 2003, the Great Hall of Cooper Union in New York City held an exhibition and memorial to honor the work of this master printer, artist, and teacher. But when his graphic oeuvre is assessed, we can see why he quickly developed a reputation for complex, multi-stone color lithographic experimentation and technical excellence.
Blackburn's mother encouraged his artistic talents, but his father discouraged him. His widely disparate proofs often did not arrive at an edition at all, evacuating the notion of rigidly identical reproduction. His commitment to sponsoring minority and third-world students and developing community programs profoundly influenced younger printmakers, who seeded similar workshops around the United States and internationally.
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There he produced the initial seventy-nine editions for artists including Helen Frankenthaler, Grace Hartigan, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Larry Rivers. Shortly after moving, his parents separated and the family underwent difficult financial times. In contrast to many African American artists of his generation, Blackburn chose to sidestep the weighty issues brought to the fore by figurative work.