Robert M. Place

Robert M. Place
Robert M. Place, May 2005
Occupation	illustrator, author, artist, jeweler, Tarot lecturer
Spouse	Rose Ann Place
Website
robertmplacetarot.com

Robert M. Place (born 1947) is an American artist and author known for his work on tarot history, symbolism, and divination.

Place has worked since the 1970s as a sculptor, jeweler and illustrator. His sculpture has been exhibited on the White House Christmas tree, in the New York State Museum, the Delaware Art Museum, and the Irish American Heritage Museum. Place’s jewelry has been exhibited in the American Craft Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Montclair Art Museum, the Summit Art Center, the International Wilhelm Muller Competition (which toured museums in Germany), the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, and in numerous galleries in the United States, Ireland, Britain, and Japan. Hw was awarded a 1984-85 New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowship and the Niche Magazine award for outstanding achievement in metal sculpture in 1990 and 1991.

In the 1990s, Place turned his attention as an illustrator to the creation of tarot decks and began his career as an author. Place is best known as the creator of The Alchemical Tarot, his first deck and book combination, which is illustrated in the style of 17th century alchemical engravings and presents a parallel between the “great work” of alchemy,which leads to the creation of the philosopher’s stone and the allegory in the tarot’s trumps.

In his other decks, The Angels Tarot, The Tarot of the Saints, and The Buddha Tarot, Place has explored the connection between religion, mysticism and the tarot’s symbolism.

In his fifth book, The Tarot: History, Symbolism, and Divination, his first book published not in connection with a tarot deck, Place contributes to the field of tarot history by discussing the images in the tarot in relation to the iconography of the 15th century Italian Renaissance, the era when the tarot was created. Place relates each image in the tarot to similar images created at that time and presents a theory of interpretation that is rooted in the art and philosophy of the time. The book also discusses contrasting occult theories and champions Pamela Colman Smith as the primary designer of the Waite-Smith Tarot.