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Page 25 October, 2014 © Journal of the Print World, 2014. All rights reserved. 1-603-267-7349 by Dorit Yaron, Deputy Director David C. Driskell Center University of Maryland, College Park The David C. Driskell Center for the Study of African American Art at the University of Maryland, College Park, is pleased to organize and pres- ent the first comprehensive retro- spective exhibition of the influential artist and master printmaker, Robert Blackburn. Robert Blackburn: Pas- sages presents approximately 90 of Blackburn’s works from the 1936 until 2002. R obert Hamilton Blackburn (1920–2003) is an incredibly important, yet under recognized and under appreciated, American artist, printmaker, and modernist. He is mainly known for his contribution to American art canon through his role as a printmaker and founder of the Robert Blackburn Printmak- ing Workshop [RBPMW], the old- est and largest print workshop in the United States until 2001. Throughout his professional career he worked with such artists as Emma Amos, Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Mel Edwards, Grace Hartigan, Jasper Johns, Robert Motherwell, Norman Lewis, Robert Rauschenberg, Faith Ringgold, Kay WalkingStick, Charles White and many others. Blackburn’s “passages” through the modern and contemporary print world are complex and unique; he bridged between the Works Project Administration [WPA] and the “graphics boom” of the 1960s which, in part, was created due to his fluency and technical mastery of complex, abstract, color lithography at the well-known Universal Limited Art Editions [ULAE] in West Islip, Long Island, from 1957 to 1963. Blackburn was born in Summit, New Jersey, and moved to Harlem, New York at age six. During the 1930s and 1940s, he trained as an artist at several arts organizations in Harlem and learned the art of lithography at the WPA’s Harlem Community Art Center. During that time, his work still adhered to a figurative style, as one can see in Boy With a Green Head, 1948. Later, he studied at The Art Students’ League where he met his crucial mentor and friend, Will Barnet. ROBERT BLACKBURN: PASSAGES The first comprehensive retrospective exhibition of the influential artist and master printmaker, Robert Blackburn Robert Blackburn, “Boy With a Green Head,” 1948, Lithograph, 14 ½” x 10 ½” Loan from Clark Atlanta University Art Collection, Courtesy of Clark Atlanta University Art Collection © The Estate of Robert Blackburn I n 1947, he bought his own press and initiated a private, yet collabor- ative, atelier in his loft, thus founding the Printmaking Workshop (this name was given decades later). Blackburn traveled to Europe in 1953-1954 on a John Hay Whitney Traveling Fel- lowship, and upon his return, he was hired as the first master printer of ULAE. While there, he printed ULAE’s first seventy-nine editions for such artists as Helen Frankenthaler, Grace Hartigan, Jasper Johns, Robert Motherwell, Robert Rauschenberg, Larry Rivers, and others. Blackburn’s works soon reveled in rich color and explored ideas of edition and variation; he experi- mented with abstraction at a time when most African American artists were expected to use figuration and other recognizable imagery. By the mid-1950s, Blackburn’s lithographs reveal his mature, complex, multi- color, abstract style. At the end of the 1950s, abstraction dominated his style. In 1963, Blackburn returned from ULAE to work full-time as his own shop, which he incorporated as a not-for-profit in 1971. There, he pro- duced an experimental and intimate body of work, primarily in lithography and later in woodcut. A “printmaker’s printmaker,” Blackburn affected the course of twentieth-century graphic through his own work. Blackburn received a John D. and Catherine T. Mac Arthur Foundation Fellowship (the so-called “Genius” award) in 1992, and in 1994, he was elected to the National Academy as an Aca- demician. He received a Lee Kras- ner Award from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation in 2000. In the 2002, he was invited by the Metropolitan Transpiration Authority Arts for Tran- sit and Urban Design, NY, to create mosaics in its 116th street Lexington Avenue Line Subway Station. Robert Blackburn, “Heavy Forms [Pink]“ 1958, Lithograph, 19 ½” x 15 3/4” Loan from Nelson/Dunks Collection, Photograph by Greg Staley © The Estate of Robert Blackburn Roberta Blackburn, “Heavy Forms,” 1961, Lithograph, 15 3/4” x 19 1/2” Loan from Wes and Missy Cochran, Cochran Collection Photograph by Karl Peterson © The Estate of Robert Blackburn Robert Blackburn’s works have been exhibited inter- nationally and are repre- sented in numerous pub- lic and private collections; large numbers of his works are held at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC and by a few private collectors. Personal relationships be- tween artists were very important for Blackburn. The Blackburn Printmak- ing Workshop was well known for its informal, friendly and accommodating atmosphere. “Artists dropped in continuously to visit with Blackburn, show him their work, discuss their projects, and ar- range to work at his PMW.” More so, “the spirit with which Robert Blackburn approached his work as an artist and mentor of artists reflects his fundamental belief in the creativ- ity within us all. Indeed, the environ- ment of the Printmaking Workshop is permeated with the caring and faith that were at the core of Black- burn’s life as an artist and teacher.” In an October 3, 1993 interview be- tween Blackburn and Prof. Curlee R. Holton at Lafayette College, Black- burn said: “My way is the way of all people. The way that I was treated by others who did things for me early on with- out regard to my difference but be- cause they believed it was the thing to do. It was about humanity, about relationships. People forget that… Here at the Workshop, we have art- ists working today from Holland, Peru, Japan… Each individual brings his load and puts it on the pile. The load gets bigger and bigger; we learn as much from others as we teach… We have artists who have been as- sociated with the Workshop for over forty years, who studied here, and whose students and children have worked here.” Today the Robert Blackburn Print- making Workshop, a program of the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, continues to function as a co- operative printmaking workspace that provides professional-quality printmaking facilities to artists and Robert Blackburn, “Untitled,” aka “In Everything There is a Season, “ 2002-2005, 116th Street Subway Station #6 Lexington Avenue Line, Commissioned and owned by MTA Arts for Transit and Urban Design Courtesy the Metropolitan Transpiration Authority Arts for Transit and Urban Design, NY (2005) © The Estate of Robert Blackburn printmakers; following Blackburn’s spirit, the RBPMW is “committed to inspiring and fostering a racially, ethnically, and culturally diverse artistic community… in an environ- ment that embraces technical and aesthetic exploration, innovation and collaboration.” The exhibition Robert Blackburn: Passages is curated by Dr. Deborah Cullen, Director & Chief Curator, The Miriam & Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University in the City of New York; with contributions by Prof. Curlee R. Holton, David C. Driskell’s Executive Director. In addition to works by Blackburn, the exhibition features ten works by Blackburn’s contemporaries such as Charles Alston, Will Barnet, Grace Hartigan, Robin Holder, and Nor- man Lewis. Passages will include works on loan from the Library of Congress, the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, Robert Blackburn Print- making Workshop, The Cochran Collection, The Nelson/Dunks Col- lections, the Metropolitan Transit Authority Arts for Transit and Urban Design, and others, and will be on display at the Driskell Center from September 18th through December 19th 2014. The exhibition will start its national tour in January 2015 and will travel thereafter. In conjunction with the exhibition, the Driskell Center will also pub- lish an exhibition catalogue which will be the first significant mono- graph of Robert Blackburn’s work. The catalogue will include color re- productions of all the works in the exhibition, continued on page 29 Robert Blackburn “Red Inside,” (details), 1972 to late 1980s Woodcut, 12” x 11 1/2” © The Estate of Robert Blackburn. Used with permission. Photography by Greg Staley Robert Blackburn Passages September 18 – December 19, 2014 David C. Driskell Center 1214 Cole Student Activities Bldg. University of Maryland College Park, MD 20878 www.driskellcenter.umd.edu This exhibition is the first comprehensive retrospective of the work of Robert Blackburn (1920- 2003) a teacher, master printer, and founder of The Printmaking Workshop, featuring over 100 prints and works on paper spanning from 1936 to 2002.

ROBERT BLACKBURN: PASSAGES - Driskell Center · Blackburn. Robert Blackburn: Pas-sages presents approximately 90 of Blackburn’s works from the 1936 until 2002. Robert Hamilton Blackburn

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Page 1: ROBERT BLACKBURN: PASSAGES - Driskell Center · Blackburn. Robert Blackburn: Pas-sages presents approximately 90 of Blackburn’s works from the 1936 until 2002. Robert Hamilton Blackburn

Page 25 October, 2014 © Journal of the Print World, 2014. All rights reserved. 1-603-267-7349

by Dorit Yaron, Deputy Director David C. Driskell Center University of Maryland, College Park

The David C. Driskell Center for the Study of African American Art at the University of Maryland, College Park, is pleased to organize and pres-ent the first comprehensive retro-spective exhibition of the influential artist and master printmaker, Robert Blackburn. Robert Blackburn: Pas-sages presents approximately 90 of Blackburn’s works from the 1936 until 2002.

Robert Hamilton Blackburn (1920–2003) is an incredibly

important, yet under recognized and under appreciated, American artist, printmaker, and modernist. He is mainly known for his contribution to American art canon through his role as a printmaker and founder of the Robert Blackburn Printmak-ing Workshop [RBPMW], the old-est and largest print workshop in the United States until 2001. Throughout his professional career he worked with such artists as Emma Amos, Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Mel Edwards, Grace Hartigan, Jasper Johns, Robert Motherwell, Norman Lewis, Robert Rauschenberg, Faith Ringgold, Kay WalkingStick, Charles White and many others.

Blackburn’s “passages” through the modern and contemporary print world are complex and unique; he bridged between the Works Project Administration [WPA] and the “graphics boom” of the 1960s which, in part, was created due to his fluency and technical mastery of complex, abstract, color lithography at the well-known Universal Limited Art Editions [ULAE] in West Islip, Long Island, from 1957 to 1963.

Blackburn was born in Summit, New Jersey, and moved to Harlem, New York at age six. During the 1930s and 1940s, he trained as an artist at several arts organizations in Harlem and learned the art of lithography at the WPA’s Harlem Community Art Center. During that time, his work still adhered to a figurative style, as one can see in Boy With a Green Head, 1948. Later, he studied at The Art Students’ League where he met his crucial mentor and friend, Will Barnet.

ROBERT BLACKBURN: PASSAGES The first comprehensive retrospective exhibition of the influential artist and master printmaker, Robert Blackburn

Robert Blackburn, “Boy With a Green Head,” 1948, Lithograph, 14 ½” x 10 ½”

Loan from Clark Atlanta University Art Collection, Courtesy of Clark Atlanta

University Art Collection© The Estate of Robert Blackburn

In 1947, he bought his own press and initiated a private, yet collabor-

ative, atelier in his loft, thus founding the Printmaking Workshop (this name was given decades later). Blackburn traveled to Europe in 1953-1954 on a John Hay Whitney Traveling Fel-lowship, and upon his return, he was hired as the first master printer of ULAE. While there, he printed ULAE’s first seventy-nine editions for such artists as Helen Frankenthaler, Grace Hartigan, Jasper Johns, Robert Motherwell, Robert Rauschenberg, Larry Rivers, and others.

Blackburn’s works soon reveled in rich color and explored ideas of edition and variation; he experi-mented with abstraction at a time when most African American artists were expected to use figuration and other recognizable imagery. By the mid-1950s, Blackburn’s lithographs reveal his mature, complex, multi-color, abstract style. At the end of the 1950s, abstraction dominated his style.

In 1963, Blackburn returned from ULAE to work full-time as his own shop, which he incorporated as a not-for-profit in 1971. There, he pro-duced an experimental and intimate body of work, primarily in lithography and later in woodcut. A “printmaker’s printmaker,” Blackburn affected the course of twentieth-century graphic through his own work. Blackburn received a John D. and Catherine T. Mac Arthur Foundation Fellowship (the so-called “Genius” award) in 1992, and in 1994, he was elected to the National Academy as an Aca-demician. He received a Lee Kras-ner Award from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation in 2000. In the 2002, he was invited by the Metropolitan Transpiration Authority Arts for Tran-sit and Urban Design, NY, to create mosaics in its 116th street Lexington Avenue Line Subway Station.

Robert Blackburn, “Heavy Forms [Pink]“1958, Lithograph, 19 ½” x 15 3/4” Loan

from Nelson/Dunks Collection, Photograph by Greg Staley

© The Estate of Robert Blackburn

Roberta Blackburn, “Heavy Forms,” 1961, Lithograph, 15 3/4” x 19 1/2”Loan from Wes and Missy Cochran,

Cochran CollectionPhotograph by Karl Peterson

© The Estate of Robert Blackburn

Robert Blackburn’s works have been exhibited inter-nationally and are repre-sented in numerous pub-lic and private collections; large numbers of his works are held at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC and by a few private collectors.

Personal relationships be-tween artists were very important for Blackburn. The Blackburn Printmak-ing Workshop was well known for its informal, friendly and accommodating atmosphere. “Artists dropped in continuously to visit with Blackburn, show him their work, discuss their projects, and ar-range to work at his PMW.” More so, “the spirit with which Robert Blackburn approached his work as an artist and mentor of artists reflects his fundamental belief in the creativ-ity within us all. Indeed, the environ-ment of the Printmaking Workshop is permeated with the caring and faith that were at the core of Black-burn’s life as an artist and teacher.”

In an October 3, 1993 interview be-tween Blackburn and Prof. Curlee R. Holton at Lafayette College, Black-burn said:

“My way is the way of all people. The way that I was treated by others who did things for me early on with-out regard to my difference but be-cause they believed it was the thing to do. It was about humanity, about relationships. People forget that… Here at the Workshop, we have art-ists working today from Holland, Peru, Japan… Each individual brings his load and puts it on the pile. The load gets bigger and bigger; we learn as much from others as we teach… We have artists who have been as-sociated with the Workshop for over forty years, who studied here, and whose students and children have worked here.”

Today the Robert Blackburn Print-making Workshop, a program of the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, continues to function as a co-operative printmaking workspace that provides professional-quality printmaking facilities to artists and

Robert Blackburn,“Untitled,” aka “In Everything There is a Season, “

2002-2005, 116th Street Subway Station #6 Lexington Avenue Line, Commissioned and owned by MTA Arts for

Transit and Urban DesignCourtesy the Metropolitan Transpiration Authority Arts

for Transit and Urban Design, NY(2005) © The Estate of Robert Blackburn

printmakers; following Blackburn’s spirit, the RBPMW is “committed to inspiring and fostering a racially, ethnically, and culturally diverse artistic community… in an environ-ment that embraces technical and aesthetic exploration, innovation and collaboration.”

The exhibition Robert Blackburn: Passages is curated by Dr. Deborah Cullen, Director & Chief Curator, The Miriam & Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University in the City of New York; with contributions by Prof. Curlee R. Holton, David C. Driskell’s Executive Director.

In addition to works by Blackburn, the exhibition features ten works by Blackburn’s contemporaries such as Charles Alston, Will Barnet, Grace Hartigan, Robin Holder, and Nor-man Lewis. Passages will include works on loan from the Library of Congress, the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, Robert Blackburn Print-making Workshop, The Cochran Collection, The Nelson/Dunks Col-lections, the Metropolitan Transit Authority Arts for Transit and Urban Design, and others, and will be on display at the Driskell Center from September 18th through December 19th 2014. The exhibition will start its national tour in January 2015 and will travel thereafter.

In conjunction with the exhibition, the Driskell Center will also pub-lish an exhibition catalogue which will be the first significant mono-graph of Robert Blackburn’s work. The catalogue will include color re-productions of all the works in the exhibition, continued on page 29

Robert Blackburn“Red Inside,” (details), 1972 to late 1980s

Woodcut, 12” x 11 1/2”© The Estate of Robert Blackburn.

Used with permission.Photography by Greg Staley

Robert Blackburn

PassagesSeptember 18 – December 19, 2014

David C. Driskell Center1214 Cole Student Activities Bldg.University of MarylandCollege Park, MD 20878

www.driskellcenter.umd.eduThis exhibition is the first comprehensive retrospective of the work of Robert Blackburn (1920-2003) a teacher, master printer, and founder of The Printmaking Workshop, featuring over 100 prints and works on paper spanning from 1936 to 2002.

Page 2: ROBERT BLACKBURN: PASSAGES - Driskell Center · Blackburn. Robert Blackburn: Pas-sages presents approximately 90 of Blackburn’s works from the 1936 until 2002. Robert Hamilton Blackburn

25th. Both the symposium and exhibition look at Blackburn’s work within the context of American modernism. The symposium’s sessions include: “Is it a Good Print, or Not?”; “Blackburn as an Artist/Printmaker and his Contemporaries”; and “Blackburn and Modernism.”

Additional information about the symposium and registration will be made available at

driskellcenter.umd.edu.

The David C. Driskell Center honors the legacy of David C. Driskell, Distinguished University Profes-sor Emeritus of Art, Artist, Art Historian, Collector and Curator, by preserving the rich heritage of African American visual art and culture. The Driskell Center is committed to preserving, documenting, and present-ing African American art, as well as replenishing and expanding the field of African American art. This ex-hibition is supported in part by the Maryland State Arts Council.

www.driskellcenter.umd.edu

1-603-267-7349 © Journal of the Print World, 2014. All rights reserved. Page 29 October, 2014

R. E. Lewis & Daughter specializes in fine prints from Old Masters to Modern, and Indian Min-iature paintings. Featured artists range from Al-brecht Dürer to Pablo Picasso and beyond. Minia-ture paintings favor the Rajput schools.

R. E. Lewis & DaughterP. O. Box 6126

San Rafael, CA 94903Tel: (415) 472-7021 Fax: (415) 472-7043

email: [email protected] www.relewis.com

Steven Thomas, Inc. has been a specialist in color woodblock prints of the Arts & Crafts era for more than 34 years, curating museum exhibitions of the work of artists such as Patterson, Maxim, Weinrich and Knaths, exhibiting at shows, as well as writing and speaking on this subject. We have not issued our regular catalogue this year in order to assure that new material will be freshly exposed at the Satellite Print Fair.

Steven Thomas, Inc.P.O. Box 41, Woodstock VT 05091

802.457.1764 (Phone) 802.432.1054 (FAX)802.291.3764 (Cell) email: [email protected]

http://www.woodblock-prints.com

Specializing in American 20th Century prints 1900-1960 with a particular emphasis on prints of the south Charleston school and others . Also an eclectic mix of WPA era regional prints and others

I stock various print mediums.

David Allen Fine Arts P.O. Box 5641

Arlington, Va. 22205-3314 Phone:(703) 536-4142

E-mail:[email protected]://www.davidallenfinearts.com

Floating World Gallery Ltd. specializes in Japanese prints and paintings from the late 17th century to the present. We are one of the world’s leading dealers in Japanese art with more than 25 years experience, offering private collectors and institu-tions the highest quality works of art. Our Chicago gallery is located in an 8,200 square foot space-- the largest of its kind in the US dedicated to Japa-nese art. Our selection at the New York Satellite Print Fair will include Japanese prints and paint-ings ranging from the charming and affordable to museum quality masterpieces. Highlights include a portrait by Toshusai Sharaku, landscapes by Kat-sushika Hokusai and Ando Hiroshige, as well as works by 20th century masters such Kawase Ha-sui, Torii Kotondo, Koshiro Onchi, Junichiro Seki-no, Ito Shinsui, Hiroshi Yoshida, Toshi Yoshida and many others.

Floating World Gallery1925 N. Halsted St., Chicago, IL 60614

www.floatingworld.com312-587-7800

Don’t miss these 14 exhibitors at the NY Satellite Print Fair

Bohemian HallNovember 7-9, 2014

321 E. 73rd Street, between 1st & 2nd Avenues, N Y

Robert Blackburn, October 3, 1993, Photography by George Panichas

Robert Blackburn continued from page 25

as well as essays by Prof. Curlee R. Holton and curator Dr. Deborah Cullen, whose monograph text is an excerpt from her dissertation, “Robert Blackburn: American Printmaker,” 2002 (The Graduate Center of the City University of New York). The catalogue will be available for pur-chase at the Driskell Center and on the Center’s website for $35.

In addition, the David C. Driskell Center and the Arts Program at the University of Maryland University College will host a symposium,

Robert Blackburn and the Modernist Movement in Prints, on Friday October 24th and Saturday

Oehme Graphics, based in Steamboat Springs, Colorado will be bringing a wide assortment of recently released mono-

types and etching editions. This year we’ve com-pleted projects with Denver-based, Homare and Mamiko Ikeda, Holly Hughes and Nancy Friese, both on the painting faculty at RISD, NY painter, Deborah Freedman, and relative new-comers, Cath-erine Schuman Miller, and Paula Schuette Kraemer.

OG will also bring prints from our extensive master collection as well as all of our exquisite artist portfo-lios suites, which were received with great enthusi-asm at last year’s inaugural NY Satellite Print Fair.

Oehme Graphics2655 Copper Ridge Circle, Unit 1

Steamboat Springs, CO 80487970-870-6609

www.oehmegraphics.comopen M-F 10-4 or by appointment