Robert Blackburn (artist)

Robert Blackburn
Born	December 10, 1920 Summit, New Jersey
Died	April 21, 2003 New York City, New York
Nationality	American
Education	Art Students League
Known for	Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop
Awards	MacArthur Fellowship 1992

Robert Hamilton Blackburn (December 10, 1920 – April 21, 2003) was an African-American artist, teacher and printmaker. Blackburn was born in Summit, New Jersey, to parents who were from Jamaica, and he grew up in Harlem, where his family moved when he was seven years old. He attended P.S. 139 and then Frederick Douglass Junior High School (1932–36), where his English teacher was Countee Cullen. Starting in 1936, he went to DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, where he worked on the literary magazine The Magpie as a writer and artist. He graduated in 1940.

And at the age of 13, he began attending classes at the Harlem Arts Community Center operated by the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project, studying with Charles Alston and Augusta Savage, among others. He studied lithography and other print-making techniques with Riva Helfond, and he frequented the Uptown Community Workshop, a gathering place for black artists and writers such as Langston Hughes, Richard Wright and Jacob Lawrence.

From early prints that portrayed cityscapes and figures on abstract backgrounds, he moved into more abstract work. From 1940 to 1943, a work scholarship to the Art Students League made it possible for him to study painting with Vaclav Vytlacil and lithography with Will Barnet, who became his friend. Between 1943 and 1948 he supported himself with difficulty with arts-related freelance work, producing maps, charts and other graphics.

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