Blackburn's apprenticeship under Barnet went far beyond mere study. He also served as Barnet's assistant, which afforded him deep insights into Barnet's artistic principles and his technical expertise. Together, they swiftly delved into the unexplored potential of their chosen medium. As time passed, their relationship matured from a traditional mentor-student dynamic into a partnership between equals driven by a shared passion for pushing the boundaries of lithography.

"We wanted the stone, and what we did on the stone to express the same ideals of painting only they were graphic in nature. They had a different look to them, they had to deal with paper instead of canvas . . . we used the stone in a very free way," Barnet remembers. Through experimentation with washes and layering, they achieved a depth of texture with diverse grounds. They dug into the stone, approaching it like a mutton to create pattern that would hold in both physically and chemically. The stone, once a passive surface, became an active medium in itself. Barnet found in Blackburn a kindred spirit, both unafraid to blur the lines between printmaking and painting, regarding the matrix not merely as a surface but as a three-dimensional form. Together, they challenged the conventional practices of lithography.

At the time, it was rare for artists to handle the printing presses themselves; typically, artists would draw on stones, which would then be entrusted to professional printers for editioning. Across much of the Western world, printers guarded their craft's secrets closely, a tradition upheld even at the Art Students League. However, Blackburn and Barnet were both artists and printers. 

On the weekends, Blackburn would assist Barnet in printing  the accomplished work of students and prominent artists alike. It was through such work with Barnet that Blackburn gained the basis of his technical knowledge.

Between 1951 and 1952, Barnet came to work at Blackburn’s studio, where they produced a groundbreaking series of experimental color lithographs using more than a dozen stones in the creation of one image—a feat virtually unheard of at that time. Blackburn wrote, “I often worked with him (Barnet), employing as many as 17 stones in one print and using techniques unfamiliar to American printmaking. These pre-date all printmaking of recent years and should hold a special place in its history."

In 1953, Blackburn won a John Hay Whitney Travel Fellowship for travel and study in Paris. He sought out the famed lithography studio Desjobert. He was soon disappointed, as the nature of works made at Desjobert separated the artist from the printer. Instead, he studied with seminal cubist painter André L’Hote for six months, talking intensely about abstract art. Blackburn enjoyed the city. Terry Haass arranged a room in a hotel for him, and he reconnected with Americans Ed Clark and Beauford Delaney.  He met Krishna Reddy and printer Roger Lecourière. Riva Helfond visited near the end of Blackburn’s stay, and as Riva previously knew Delaney, they all spent time together. Blackburn and Helfond traveled around the French countryside on a motorbike.

This year abroad left a great impression on Blackburn, who already drew much inspiration from European Modernism in his own work. Spending a significant amount of time connecting with European artists, visiting museums, working in traditional and avante-garde studios and printshops, traveling the countryside, and experiencing different cultures rejuvenated his soul. We can witness the fruits of his inspiration in a series of abstracted still-life lithographs created upon his return. 

By 1955, he was back at his own press producing lithographs, primarily still lives but eventually abstractions, where he worked through variations of color, compositional rotations, and colors.

We are proud to include a group of 3 working proofs that we believe were made in the 1950s. The three state proofs record the development of Blackburn’s ideas. The first sheet has the basic composition mapped out and serves as an armature upon which Blackburn explored options for further additions; the second sheet reveals the results of additional etched passages, along with further drawing upon the proof with ink wash; and the third sheet includes further steps in the process with more commitment via etched shapes and graphite drawing, where careful, highly intentional cross-hatched lines indicate further thinking upon this third trial proof.

We have yet to discover a final proof, and it may be true that these proofs are as far as Blackburn went with this particular plate. Demonstrating the nature of his approach to making an etching, and the care and craftsmanship of his mark-making serve as evidence of his decision-making within the process allowing us to know more about what was important to Blackburn.  The set of working proofs also serves as a testament to the pedagogical nature inherent in printmaking. 

Born Terezie Goldmannová in 1923 in Český Těšín, then part of Czechoslovakia, Terry Haass was raised in a region dominated by Germanic influences. Fleeing the rise of antisemitism and German aggression in 1938, her family sought refuge in Paris, where Terry immersed herself in fashion and art courses at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière. As war engulfed Europe, they were smuggled through Andorra to Portugal, eventually securing passage to New York in April 1941. Upon her arrival, Terry promptly enrolled in printmaking classes at the Arts Students League under the guidance of Will Barnet, where she forged a lasting friendship with her talented classmate, Robert Blackburn.

During the early 1950s, Terry deepened her acquaintance with Blackburn while serving as the workshop manager at Atelier 17. Their bond endured throughout their lives, with Blackburn becoming an integral part of Terry’s family circle, enjoying home-cooked meals and stimulating conversations with her mother. The holiday card preserved in Terry’s collection, sent by Bob Blackburn, is witness to their enduring connection.

In 1947, Terry Haass embarked on her journey with Atelier 17, then situated at 41 East 8th Street, above Rosenthal's artist's supplies store. Here, she was introduced to the intricacies of burin engraving, its processes, and its materials, which paved the way for her exploration of abstraction. Over her illustrious 60+ year career, Haass’s artistic evolution mirrored her profound reverence for physics, the natural world, and her immediate surroundings. From her early lithographs depicting the social realities of wartime to the uninhibited exploration fostered at Hayter's Atelier 17 and onwards to her abstract expressionist etchings that evoke terrestrial formations and atmospheric phenomena, Haass’s oeuvre encapsulates a ceaseless quest for transformation and intellectual curiosity.

Krishna Reddy and Blackburn first met in Paris in 1953 and became friends.  They met again while Krishna was visiting in 1964, and on the occasion of his second visit in 1968, Blackburn invited Reddy to teach a workshop at his studio. 

Many artists at Atelier 17 and Blackburn's workshop embraced the viscosity method, and we are delighted to share superb examples.  From the earliest examples, Reddy’s Insect 1952, Hayter’s About Boats, and Witches Sabbath changed how artists thought about etching, deeply etched (bitten) plates and applying color. This led to new kinds of expression. Reddy explored numerous color variations or color trial proofs from a single plate before deciding on final state and solution for creating an edition.  He did a great deal of research into the physical properties of printing inks and how to manipulate them.  This approach dovetailed with Hayter's background in the chemical properties of  oil and dating to his work in the oil fields of then Persia in the 1920s.  Adding oil or magnesium sulfate served the purpose of making the inks better behaved for the sake of consistency and allowing artists to apply layers of colors onto a single plate.  A single plate and a single run through the press produced the highly satisfying depth of color evident in the examples shared here.  The density of rollers to apply layers of inks to plates is another aspect of simultaneous printing, addressing the desire to have some inks sit on the surface of the plate while other colors are applied to the recessed, etched hollows in a plate.  

He and Helen Phillips brought a sculptor’s point of view to the process, treating various depths of etched surface as shallow relief and exploiting color possibilities.  “I approached printmaking as a sculptor and brought about significant changes both in plate preparation and color printing…maximum simplicity and directness while increasing the expressiveness and the intensity of my images” was Krishna’s goal.  Bob Blackburn wrote, “His (Reddy’s) comprehension of the metal plate as sculpture below the surface, broken up into myriad cavities that retain colour in various densities gives a luminous, rich multicolored image.”  And, “America was fortunate that Krishna had continued in the tradition of the Atelier (17).”

This new way of using color coincided with the moment when abstract expressionism became the leading edge of international art. Viscosity, or simultaneous color printing, became a ubiquitous technique at Blackburn's workshop and, as evidenced here, many artists made the technique their own.  

Kathy Caraccio enrolled at the newly created Herbert H. Lehman College in the late 1960s, and her first printmaking instructor was engraver Richard Ziemann. When Ziemann left for a sabbatical and Arun Bose took his place. Bose had just arrived from Paris, where he’d worked with Hayter at Atelier 17, and arrived with a newly acquired printing technique called color viscosity. Arun Bose also worked as a master printer at Blackburn’s PMW.

“Arun’s first class was a viscosity printing lesson which utilized color ink, rollers to apply the inks to the metal plates, and oil. I realized right then that I could draw, paint and print all in one class.” Bose loved teaching, playing with color, and inventing new unconventional printing approaches. "Arun was a father figure, a mentor, and someone who set the example of practicing art making enthusiastically. Most of all, he treated me like an artist not a student. I wanted to use the presses as an alumni and the art office said I could if my teacher gave me permission. So I went to Arun and he said, “no, you don’t want to do that, you want to go to Blackburns.”

“Bob had an open door, shirt off his back policy. He invited everybody in. If you couldn’t pay, you didn’t have to. He would just say 'get to work.' Being in Manhattan, he attracted many international students and artists who fell in love with the potential of printmaking.”

"It was a profound opportunity to think about the artists working at PMW and where they were located geographically and listen to artists share their culture and learn about the printmaking techniques. It was always interested to talk to international artists because many other cultures have a much longer tradition of printmaking."  — excerpted from Kathy Caraccio, Right Place, Right Time: The Rest Is History — Becoming a Master Printer and Collector with Bob Blackburn (New York, 2021)

Joyce Wellman is an accomplished artist who engages in persistent experimentation with ideas, media, composition, and materials. The body of her abstract art references the subconscious mind and explores the language of dreams. Blending the genres of painting, drawing, and printmaking, she has pushed her ideas and concepts to generate new pathways of exploration. Her work invites the viewer into an enigmatic conversation with the unconscious.

At the Studio Museum, Wellman studied with printmaker Valerie Maynard. Searching for "anything that was free," she also attended the Public Theater's photography workshop and Blackburn's Printmaking Workshop of New York City, which provide evening classes where emerging artists of all ages can learn the techniques of established professionals.

Wellman's early prints were shown at the Cinque, a gallery originating from the generous concerns of its founders, Romare Bearden, Norman Lewis, and Ernest Crichlow. One of its purposes was to provide exposure for young African American artists. Gallery director Chris Shelton "was very open, welcoming, giving," Wellman recalls. "I educated myself there. I was very shy, hoping that I could have a show there one day. Chris helped make that dream come true. We hung out. I met other artists.  And I felt very lucky - "there were no gender issues (e.g., sexual harassment)."

Another early mentor was Ed Clark. Helping Clark stretch and frame his 25-foot-high canvasses, Wellman was inspired to explore her potential as a painter. Her development as a printmaker continued at the Color Print Atelier under the tutelage of Krishna Reddy, the "father", according to Wellman, of color viscosity printing." —Richard Powell, The International Review of African American Art (IRAAA), Vol. 10, No. 3 (1993)

In Montparnasse, Paris, under a fourth-floor studio skylight, Clark developed his signature push-broom technique. Dissatisfied with the wavering gestures of a hand brush, he used the broom to extend his reach and rush long, energetic strokes of paint horizontally across his canvases. Color is mixed luminously and directly on the painting’s surface. This innovation, coupled with the oval-shaped canvases of his later years – which Clark felt better matched the human field of vision – allowed Clark to achieve what art historian Darby English notes as a unique “dimensionality of color” that does away with “head-on representations of the world.”

Over a period of 25 years, Clark worked with the famed studio of Robert Blackburn to produce a number of intaglio and relief prints. We are pleased to present a selection of these works, dating from 1976 to 1997. Combining luscious color blends, etched horizontal lines, and the ellipse as a central motif, these works offer a rich, potent and yet understudied account of how Blackburn's masterful knowledge of printmaking offered Clark a means to distill many of his paintings' key elements into discrete printerly moves.

Compared to traditional printmaking techniques like etching, engraving, and relief printing, lithography stands out for its planographic nature. Unlike the intaglio methods of etching and engraving, where incised lines hold ink, or the relief printing process, where the ink is applied to raised surfaces, lithography relies on the smooth surface of the stone or plate. This characteristic makes lithography well-suited for capturing intricate details and achieving a wider range of tonal values. Its versatility allows artists to experiment with various drawing and painting techniques directly on the printing surface, providing a unique space for creative expression.

"During the mid-1950s Robert Blackburn's printmaking workshop was run by a loose cooperative of artist-friends while he spent a year and a half in Paris and Europe under the auspices of a prestigious John Hay Whitney Traveling Fellowship. After his return to New York,  he was hired in 1957 as the first master printer at Universal Limited Art Editions (ULAE), the lithographic venture founded by Tatyana and Maurice Grosman, based in West Islip, Long Island. At ULAE, he printed for an emerging generation of artists including, Larry Rivers, Grace Hartigan, Helen Frankenthaler, and Robert Rauschenberg. His predilections and fluency with the medium contributed to the new “look” of these works, which would define the American “graphics boom.”

During this active period, Blackburn's color graphics reached a creative and technical zenith. In 1963, he began to operate his own Manhattan workshop full time, providing an open graphics studio for artists of diverse social and economic backgrounds, ethnicities, styles, and levels of expertise. Under his direction, the Printmaking Workshop became one of the most vital collaborative art studios in the world.

Robert Blackburn's commitment to nurturing artistic talent and his advocacy for printmaking as a legitimate form of artistic expression contributed to the broader recognition and appreciation of lithography within the American art community."  — Creative Space: Fifty Years of Robert Blackburn's Printmaking Workshop, A Graphics Explosion (Library of Congress exhibition, 2003)

Ronald  Joseph and Blackburn studied lithography in the 1930s at Harlem Community Arts Center under Riva Helfond. Tom Laidman met Blackburn a few years later while studying with Will Barnet at the Arts Students League (ASL). Both men would stay close to Blackburn throughout their lives, continuing to advance each other's art practice through camaraderie and good-natured competition. Blackburn credits Joseph for helping him remain focused on his own work. They made sketches or "notations" together in various parks in the greater New York Metropolitan area. Joseph won a Rosenwald Fellowship in 1948, taking him to Peru and then Paris, where he studied at the Grande Chaumière. In 1956, he left for Brussels, returning in 1989 to renew friendships, including the opportunity to make lithographs with Blackburn, including  Untitled c . 1990, with its expertly printed rich black tones. 

Tom Laidman became a close friend of Blackburn at ASL and was an early participant in his workshop: “When I came there in 1950, the Shop was on West 17th Street in a four-story red brick building,” Laidman recalled. “There was no elevator, and everything in the place went up on our backs, including the presses, stones, lumber for building, coal for the stove in the middle of the shop. We froze in the winter,  roasted in the heat in summer, and the heat didn’t make the printing any easier. We went through all kinds of maneuvers to keep the images in the stones from filling in. The atmosphere was friendly and intimate,” Laidman said. “There was an open arrangement where … students and artists had unlimited access. There were three or four litho presses, and we’d all fight for press time. Bob was a dynamo of energy.”

Blackburn's establishment of the Printmaking Workshop in New York City in 1948 signified a pivotal moment in the evolution of African American artistic discourse. It served not only as a space for artistic refinement but also as a hub for cultural production and dissemination, fostering exploration of identity, tradition, and innovation within a socio-political context. Benjamin Wigfall later replicated this model with Communications Village in Kingston, NY in 1973.

Hailing from Churchville, Virginia, where he first found solace in the arts, Wigfall's journey included teaching at Hampton Institute (1955-1963) before becoming SUNY New Paltz's first Black art professor. His Communications Village became a vibrant community-focused print shop offering diverse classes and lectures, sparking discussions on social and cultural influences. Through visiting artist programs, Wigfall connected artists and locals, fostering a sense of shared identity and purpose.

Wigfall's story emphasizes the transformative power of artistic collaboration in socio-cultural emancipation, echoing Blackburn's impact. Their workshops remain symbols of African American artistry's enduring legacy, challenging and reimagining the world we inhabit.

Revisiting matrices was a method frequently employed by Blackburn to stimulate new creations throughout his career. Beyond merely experimenting with alternate color proofs, he consistently manipulated his compositions, seamlessly transitioning between vertical and horizontal formats and embracing the endless array of variations they offered. This can be seen when comparing  Jay Talk Hawk 1975 and Miss Unity 1990, where the same woodblocks are utilized in different orientations.

Additionally, Untitled, 2000 represents another instance where Blackburn revisited and reinvented his earlier work Sunlight and Shadows 1960s-70s. In the later printing, he stripped the compostion down to its most essential.

 Organic Things 2001 was first printed in the 1979 under the title Forms and Experiment, but was reprinted 30 years after with multiple variations using the simultaneous color viscosity technique.

Blackburn welcomed in artists, friends, and friends of friends. The community grew, until it became an informal cooperative and then, in 1971, a nonprofit.  As his influence spread, over the years the artists who came through his workshop would form their own communities, and Blackburn inspired new print shops in many places. In 1978 he traveled to Asilah in Morocco to found the Asilah print workshop there.

“It’s interesting to think how international modern art was in the 1970s,” curator Jonathan Canning said, marveling. “The idea of setting up an international print workshop in Morocco in the 1970s seems extraordinary.” (Kate Abbott - BTW Bershires, 2022)

"In 1974 Bob brought me a large, etched copper plate and proposed that I put some color on it. I ask who it was for, he said it didn’t matter that he would pay me for threes dates to proof with the viscosity set up I had. Bingo! That project ended up being for Romare Bearden’s images, The Train, and The Family. During the proofing stage with victory reliers I was free to explore —I had nobody telling me what they wanted."

"Bob was very smart to trust me to proceed with whatever instincts I had. He was a genius at implementing a printing project and tapping the resources of his membership. After a dozen proofs went to Romare and he added watercolor. Alex Rosenberg selected one to publish in his upcoming Bicentennial Portfolio. One came back to me to be editioned. I needed to add a watercolor plate, adjust some parts of the image and cut out many smaller sections for separate inking. The studio hired assistants to help me with the viscosity and the à la poupée color application." The Train became one of Romare Bearden’s most loved and coveted prints.  — excerpted from Kathy Caraccio, Right Place, Right Time: The Rest Is History — Becoming a Master Printer and Collector with Bob Blackburn (New York, 2021)

Bob Blackburn’s decades-long friendship and trust in Kathy Caraccio's ability led to the series of viscosity mono prints, which form the final prints project in Blackburn’s oeuvre, Organic Things (2001). It is another case of Blackburn revisiting an earlier project. The zinc plate was engraved and etched in 1979, and a few impressions were pulled with the titles Forms and Experiment. Guiding Kathy with her deep knowledge of printing color viscosity, 30 unique impressions were created, each with its unique color solution ranging from soft, pastel shades to deep, vibrant reds, yellows and blues. Blackburn’s trust in his philosophy and history repaid him very well, and we are extremely proud to share four examples that show the versatility of the viscosity method, each revealing a fresh and informative response to the structure inherent in Blackburn’s deeply etched plate.