Robert Blackburn American, 1920-2003
Untitled (Pink Nude) , 1948
color lithograph
image: 24 3/4 x 19 1/8"
sheet: 28 x 23 3/4"
sheet: 28 x 23 3/4"
signed recto
Variously titled, Nude, Nude Sketch, or Sketch, 1943-48, is a quick and electric outline that serves as a cipher of woman, a compositional form onto which Blackburn is able to...
Variously titled, Nude, Nude Sketch, or Sketch, 1943-48, is a quick and electric outline that serves as a cipher of woman, a compositional form onto which Blackburn is able to imagine various shades. A progression exist in which Blackburn tries on various skin tones and background shades; from heavy wash, washy blacks and browns to open paper areas that read as "white", the work allows the artist to run through all racial variance. The liveliest passages in the otherwise academic image are where Blackburn breaks open the dais, the seat, and the fabric behind the model through the use of pink, mustard, and grey collar combinations. Such a work was most likely drawn from his experience, working with live models at the Art students league, or just afterwards. (Deborah Cullen - Robert Blackburn Passages, 2014)
