// Workers AI · dad joke modeWho's Morris Blackburn? A burner of black ink.
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Morris Atkinson Blackburn (1902–1979) was a printmaker, muralist, and teacher. He is considered to be a pioneer of silkscreen printing.[1]
Blackburn's work is in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Gallery of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Museum, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.[2][3][4][5] His papers are held by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.[6]
Early life and education
[edit]Blackburn was born in Philadelphia in 1902.[1]
He studied architectural drawing at the Philadelphia Trade School in 1918 after which he worked at the Hog Island shipbuilding yard.[7][6]
Blackburn studied art at the Graphic Sketch Club, now the Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial, in 1922. He attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts from 1925 to 1929.[1][7] While at PAFA, he studied sketching under Arthur Carles, painting under Henry McCarter, and drawing under Daniel Garber.[1] He was taught privately by Arthur Beecher Carles.[8]
Career
[edit]
Artistic career
[edit]Blackburn was a painter and graphic designer. Much of his work featured scenes of Philadelphia, New Jersey, and Taos, New Mexico.[9]
He was an early adopter of the silkscreen process and often used it in his work.[9]
Blackburn created two murals for the Works Progress Administration's Public Works Art Project in the mid-1930s. The murals were located at Mastbaum Vocational School and Haverford High School.[6]
Teaching career
[edit]Blackburn began teaching at the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art, now the University of the Arts, in 1932.[6]
He taught at various art schools, including the Tyler School of Art, from 1948 to 1952 and joined the faculty of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1952.[6]
Collections
[edit]Works by Blackburn are kept in several museum collections:
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 "Woodmere Art Museum: Morris Blackburn". woodmereartmuseum.org. Retrieved 2023-02-09.
- 1 2 "Morris Blackburn | Smithsonian American Art Museum". americanart.si.edu. Retrieved 2023-02-09.
- 1 2 "Artist Info: Morris Blackburn". www.nga.gov. Retrieved 2023-02-09.
- 1 2 "Costume Figure No. 2: 1939. Morris Atkinson Blackburn American". www.metmuseum.org. Retrieved 2023-02-09.
- ↑ "Morris Blackburn art exhibit at Brookdale Jan. 22 to Feb. 21". www.centraljersey.com. 2020-01-10. Retrieved 2023-02-09.
- 1 2 3 4 5 "Morris Blackburn papers finding aid: PAFA" (PDF). August 2016.
- 1 2 3 "Collections Online | British Museum | Morris Blackburn". www.britishmuseum.org. Retrieved 2023-02-09.
- ↑ "Arthur B. Carles". woodmereartmuseum.org. Woodmere Art Museum. Retrieved 22 September 2025.
- 1 2 "Morris Blackburn Exhibit in the CVA Gallery - Brookdale Community College". www.brookdalecc.edu. 2020-07-01. Retrieved 2023-02-10.
- ↑ Blackburn, Morris. "Non-Objective". philamuseum.org. Retrieved 2023-02-10.
Further reading
[edit]Philadelphia: Three Centuries of American Art, (Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1976), pp. 584–86.
External links
[edit]- Image via Temple University Libraries: Humbert Howard with Morris Blackburn, Lois Mailou Jones, and Jacob Lawrence at a Pyramid Club Art Exhibition, 1957.
- Morris Blackburn Papers at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Archives
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