CELEBRATING ROBERT BLACKBURN
ON VIEW by appointment
10 December - 28 February 2021
Join us in celebrating Robert Blackburn’s centennial this year. This exhibition includes first time exhibited audio recordings of interviews with Robert Blackburn, on loan by Camille Billops and James V. Hatch archives at Emory University, Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University. On view from The Estate of Robert Blackburn, a selection of lithographs and woodblock prints; carved blocks; and photographs from the original shop—its members and youth educational outreach. A special thank you to Kathy Caraccio for her help in identifying photographs and loaning from her collection, Blue Door 1971; and Young Blackburn Print Fellow, Wildriana Maria de Jesús Paulino.
An influential teacher, celebrated collaborator, and pioneering artist, Robert Blackburn (b. 1920 - d. 2003) initiated The Printmaking Workshop in Chelsea in 1947 by acquiring his own lithography press. He ran it as collaborative atelier for 24 years, until 1971, when he incorporated “The Printmaking Workshop” as a not-for-profit organization.
The son of Jamaican immigrants, Blackburn created a welcoming space for all artists to learn, experiment, and exchange. His shop became a magnet for diverse international participants, resulting in a richly varied graphic output unlike any other workshop in the United States.
Although Blackburn taught widely, was a highly respected color lithographer, and served as the first master printer for ULAE (Universal Limited Art Editions, where he printed the first 79 editions for artists including Helen Frankenthaler, Grace Hartigan, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Larry Rivers) he remained dedicated to his own Printmaking Workshop.
Thirty-two years later in 2002, as he began deteriorated, Blackburn closed The Printmaking Workshop. He passed away in 2003.The Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop re-opened in 2005 as a program of the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, continuing to make space for diversity and cultivate a community that encourages diverse artists to experiment in the graphic arts, in the spirit of Robert Blackburn.—
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Traveling Exhibitions
at Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art September 12, 2020-February 28, 2021
