University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States
In 1949, Robert received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Drawing and Painting from the University of California, Berkeley. In 1952, he received a Master of Arts degree from the same educational establishment.
University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California, United States
In 1949, Robert received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Drawing and Painting from the University of California, Berkeley. In 1952, he received a Master of Arts degree from the same educational establishment.
Robert Colescott was an American painter and educator, who represented Surrealism movement. He was mostly known for his expressionistic paintings, which dealt with his identity and black history.
Background
Robert Colescott was born on August 26, 1925, in Oakland, California, United States. He was a son of Warrington Wickham Colescott, an accomplished classical and jazz violinist, and Lydia Kenner (Hutton) Colescott, a pianist. Warrington Colescott, an artist, was Robert's brother.
Education
As a child, Robert was interested in music very much. At an early age, he even took up drumming and seriously considered pursuing a career as a musician before settling on art instead. In 1949, Robert received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Drawing and Painting from the University of California, Berkeley. During the period from 1949 till 1950, he studied under Fernand Léger, a French painter, in Paris. After Colescott's return to the United States, he continued his studies at the University of California, Berkeley, graduating with a Master of Arts degree in 1952.
In 1942, Robert was drafted to the United States Army, where he served till the end of World War II. He was stationed in Paris, where he found the culture more hospitable to black people, than in the United States.
Like many other artists of his generation, Robert pursued parallel careers as a devoted and influential teacher and painter. In 1957, he began working as an associate professor of art at Portland State College (present-day Portland State University), remaining there till 1966. The year of 1964, Robert spent in Egypt, having received a study grant from the American Research Center in Cairo.
In 1966, Colescott was appointed a visiting professor of art at the American University of Cairo, a post he held till 1967. When the War of Attrition broke out, Robert, together with his then-wife Sally Dennett and their son Dennett Colescott, relocated to Paris for three years. In 1970, the family settled down in California, where, the same year, Robert was appointed a professor of art at the Stanislaus State College (present-day California State University, Stanislaus), holding the post until 1974, when he was made a visiting lecturer of painting and drawing at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1979, Colescott left his teaching position at the educational establishment.
In addition, in 1976, Robert was made a professor of painting and drawing at San Francisco Art Institute. Between 1983 and 1984, Colescott held a post of a visiting professor at the University of Arizona in Tucson. In 1985, he was made a staff member of the university, where, in 1990, Robert became the first art department faculty member to be honored with the title of Regents' Professor.
Speaking about Robert's professional career as an artist, it was Arlene Schnitzer, the patron of the arts and philanthropist, who contributed significantly to the establishment of his reputation. In 1961, Robert's work was included in Schnitzer's Fountain Gallery inaugural exhibition, where he had a solo exhibition in 1963. In 1977, the gallery, along with works of Colescott and those of other artists, was destroyed by fire. The gallery, which was reopened after the fire in a new location, continued to represent Colescott's work until it closed its doors in 1986.
By the mid-1970's, Colescott had embarked on a series of works, which reimagined iconic European paintings, such as Édouard Manet’s "Olympia (1863), but with black figures, given a more important role. Robert's work, titled "George Washington Carver Crossing the Delaware: Page From an American History Textbook" (1975), based on Emanuel Leutze's 1851 painting of the Revolutionary War hero, puts Carver, a pioneering African-American agricultural chemist, at the helm of a boat, loaded with black cooks, maids, fishermen and minstrels. Robert also produced his own versions of Vincent van Gogh's "Potato Eaters" (1975), Jan van Eyck's "Arnolfini Portrait" (1976) and Édouard Manet's "Dejeuner sur l'Herbe" (1980).
In 1987, Colescott's works were represented at the San Jose Museum of Art, the first major retrospective of his work. Later, the exhibition traveled to other establishments, including the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, Baltimore Museum of Art, Portland Art Museum, Akron Art Museum, Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, among others.
Some time later, in 1997, Robert was put in the spotlight, when he was chosen to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale. Later, the exhibition of Robert's work began a three-year tour of museums, that included the Queens Museum of Art, University of Arizona Museum of Art, University of Nebraska Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden (present-day Sheldon Museum of Art), among others.
Knowledge of the Past Is the Key to the Future: Some Afterthoughts on Discovery
Ode to Joy (European Anthem)
Views
Throughout his long and prolific career, Robert's works adhered to a distinctly political, multicultural agenda. His subject matter often distorted or destabilized the visual signifiers of gender and race.
Personality
Physical Characteristics:
Robert suffered for several years from Parkinsonian syndrome.
Quotes from others about the person
"While Mr. Colescott’s work was overtly political and multicultural, it was often at odds with the academic earnestness of such approaches. In his disregard for simplistic dualities, regarding race and sex, he helped set the stage for transgressive work by painters, like Ellen Gallagher, Kerry James Marshall, Sue Williams and Carroll Dunham and multimedia artists, like Kara Walker, William Pope.L and Kalup Linzy." - Roberta Smith, a co-chief art critic of The New York Times and a lecturer on contemporary art
Connections
In 1950, Robert married Zdenka Falarova. They gave birth to their children Alexander and Nicholas. In 1962, Robert and Zdenka separated.
The same year, in 1962, Robert married Sally Dennett. Together, they gave birth to their child, named Dennett. In 1972, Sally and Robert divorced.
Later, in 1979, Colescott married his third wife - Susan Ables. Their marriage produced a son, named Daniel. However, the couple's marriage didn't last long and they separated in 1983. Then, Robert tied the knot with Jandava Cattron.
Also, Cooper Colescott is one of Robert's children.
Art and Race Matters: The Career of Robert Colescott
The most comprehensive volume, devoted to the life and work of pioneering African-American artist Robert Colescott, accompanying the largest traveling exhibition of his work ever mounted.