Robert Freimark
American, born 1922
Primary residence of studio: Grass Valley Studios, 539A Dougherty Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037.
Subject matter for which known: "I am an abstract-expressionist, but I am committed to the belief that all artists must thoroughly know and pursue the figure and the figurative genre, in the same sense that a pianist regularly practices the scale."
Methods of work: It is imperative that the artist seek and discover the most suitable media for the labor at hand, and to attempt to master whatever media he encounters, to achieve this goal. Recently, I have completed an exhibition called "Los Desaparecidos" which depicts my subjects in an all-media exhibit by one artistincluding film, which adds the dimensions of time and action.
I spent seven years of my life in the United States Navy, including all of World War II. I was on the ship with the best firing record throughout the war, where I was a pointer on a forty millimeter quad. The pointer is the man who aims and fires the guns. I was in 56 engagements with the Japanese. I came out of the experience disillusioned by the intelligence of our Naval officers, and totally against all war. As an artist, it is one of my commitments to relay this experience to my fellow citizens.
EDUCATION AND ART TRAINING
My family moved to Toledo, Ohio when I was in the eighth grade. For the first time we had electricity and a coal furnace, and I had access to a radio. I heard Fats Waller every morning before walking the three miles to high school, and we listened to the Grand Old Opry every Saturday night. Every class selects one student to attend Saturday art classes at the Toledo Museum of Art, and I was fortunate enough to be so chosen. At that time the Toledo Museum of Art was the third most significant museum in the U.S. At the same time, I was deeply involved in sports, particularly boxing and football. I won the Diamond Belt Tournament in Detroit and got to meet Joe Louis and Jack Dempsey. My Clay High School team was undefeated both seasons I played, and was unscored upon one year. These factors played a significant role in shaping my life perspective.
After the war I attended the University of Toledo, and studied with Hal Lotterman and Harvey Littleton, plus an excellent faculty at the Toldeo Museum of Art. I went on to gain my Masters in Fine Arts at Cranbrook Academy of Art, where I was tutored by Eliel Saarinen in architecture and Carl Milles in sculpture. These two men were giants in their field. As for painting and printmaking, Cranbrook was ideal for me, since there was little direct supervision or teaching. Students worked in their studios, and were regularly dismissed when they failed to meet expectations. I taught myself all the print media.
Following Cranbrook, I returned to Toledo, where I lived near Israel Abramofsky, who had been one of the expatriates in Paris during the blooming of Modern art. Later I studied with Max Weber, from that same period, and these two artists provided me with the most significant set of principles with which to direct my future involvement in art.
GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATIONS WHERE PAINTED
I utilize the landscape extensively to provide me with figurative reference, as well as to record impressions and thoughts. Consequently, I have managed to paint many of the place I have traveled. Ohio was my starting point, and then I concentrated on northern Michigan since I had my studio at Frankfort for ten years. As Artist in Residence at the Des Moines Art Center I made paintings of Iowa and the Midwest, then toured Mexico over the years, painting regularly. After this period, I moved my family to California where I have maintained my studio for the past 44 years.
From here I made regular painting trips to Canada, Bali, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Argentina, Hawaii, Cuba and throughout Europe. These combined experiences were greatly instrumental in freeing my mind of contemporary dogma.
My main two bodies of figurative work were completed at my studio in Morgan Hill. My suite of serigraphs, "Fifty States," toured Europe in 1970-71 and includes one example of each of the U.S. fifty states. Starting in 1964, I simultaneously applied myself to creating a suite of 500 California Landscapes, devoted to presenting this beautiful state in its unspoiled aspects, before man completed his "improvements."
As a teacher myself, I spent my years on the college level, which constantly kept me alert to contemporary thinking and forced me to present my ideas verbally as well as visually.
My outdoor painting classes led me to set up the Artist in Residence program for the National Parks, which I initiated at Yosemite in 1984. My travels abroad introduced me to Art Protis, the tapestry technique perfected in Communist Czechoslovakia, where I worked seasonally for 25 years, immersed in a technique that was very related to painting. When I eventually realized that certain significant aspects of life were gradually disappearing without record, I determined to teach myself to make films in order to fulfill this obligation. As a consequence, film-making has occupied a good deal of my time at the turn of the century. In 2005 I had completed "El Dia Tarasco" in Mexico, "Arte Cubano" in Cuba, "Los Desaparecidos" in Argentina, and "Royal Chicano Air Force" in California.
I consider myself a painter. But to be a painter, you have to under-stand line, and drawing. Drawing leads directly into print-making. And finally there is sculpture, and architecture, to house the art.
I was motivated by the people before me, Matisse and Cezanne particularly, and eventually Willem DeKooning. I understood from those early masters that it is the province and discipline of an artist to utilize whatever media he confronts, or whatever exists around him, and particularly the media most pertinent to the subject at hand. This led to my fashioning multi-media exhibitions by one artist. To add motion and time to my work, I adopted and included film.
Finally I began to realize how closely inter-related are all the arts, and from this vantage point I tried to put some of my observations and reactions on paper. It was then I realized I had been trying to write all my life. I could say the same thing about music. I love to sing, and I love to play an instrument. As we grow older, the voice fades, and the fingers lose dexterity, till the music suffers. This is not necessarily so when it comes to painting and poetry. Here, occasionally, the feeble or shaky fingers may add a thoughtful dimension, or even a necessary ingredient. Here we can restore memory vividly back to life. It seems that painting and poetry are vehicles for the long haul.
ONE-PERSON EXHIBITIONS:
Rockefeller Center (sponsor: Prang Crayon Co.), 1954
Des Moines Art Center, 1959
Minneapolis Institute of Art, 1960
North American Cultural Institute, Mexico City, 1963
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, CA, 1965
Exhibition "Fifty States" toured Europe: Moravske Museum, Brno, Czechoslovakia; International People's College, Helsinger, Denmark; Galerie Alliance, Copenhagen; vaerksted fur Grafisk Kunst, Hjorring, Denmark; Newton Abbot School of Art, Ikon Gallery, Dartington Hall in Totnes, Centre for American Studies at Exeter Universityall in England, Schiller College, Bonnigheim, Germany.
"Fifty States", official U.S. Bicentennial offering, in Amerika Hausen, Germany.
Visitor's Center, Yosemite National Park, 1985
Joslyn Center for Arts, Torrance, CA, 1987
Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, CA, 1990
Stara Radnice, Brno and Strahov Kloster, National Palace, Prague, 1990
Galerie Katinae (Studio of Corot), St. Ceneri le Gerei, France, 1992
Art Expo, NYC, 2000
Dakar Bienale, Senegal, 2002
GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
"Drawings of 12 Countries," Chicago Art Institute, 1952
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, Lambert Fund Prize, 1952
Brooklyn Print Biennial, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Purchase Award, 1960
International Watercolor Biennial, Brooklyn Museum of Art, 1963
Olympic Games, Moscow, American representative, 1980
Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, "Enrichments of the Print Cabinet," 1989
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, "Screen Prints1930s-1960s", 1991
Hotel Cosima, Tokyo, Japan, Installation: Tapestry and Paintings, 1994
Graphic Arts International, Portland Art Museum, OR, Purchase Award, 1997
Japan Contemporary Arts and Crafts, Tokyo Museum, Invited, 1995
National Works on Paper, University of Hawaii, Hilo, 1996
International Print Triennale, Krakow, Poland, 1997-98
Boston Print Symposium, Harvard and Boston Museum, Invited, 1997
Museum of Arts Downtown Los Angeles, 1997
Honolulu Academy of Fine Arts, "Lithography After 200 Years," 1998
Mini-Print International, Cadaques, Spain, circulating 1 year, 2002
Egyptian International Print Triennale, Cairo, 2003
Dahlonega International Film Festival, Atlanta, Freedom Award, 2003
Hungarian Multi-Cultural Exhibition, Vizivarosi Gallery, Budapest, 2004
PERMANENT COLLECTIONS
1. Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France
2. Boston Museum of Fine Arts, MA
3. British Museum, London
4. Cranbrook Museum of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI
5. Florean Museum, Carbunari, Romania
6. Fogg Museum, Cambridge, MA
7. Gilkey Center for Graphic Arts, Portland, OR (complete printsover 600)
8. Kyoto International Woodprint Association, Japan
9. Library of Congress, Washington, DC
10. Los Angeles County Art Institute, CA
11. Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, Panama City, Panama
12. Museo Emilio Bacardi, Santiago de Cuba
13. Museo Nacional de Costa Rica, San Jose, CR
14. Museo Nacional de Cuba, La Habana, Cuba
15. Museum of the International Triennial of Graphic Arts, Sofia, Bulgaria
16. National Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic
17. National Museum of American History (over 100 works) Washington, DC
18. Seattle Art Museum, WA
19. National Museum of Fine Arts, Cairo, Egypt
20. Museo Guayasamin, Quito, Ecuador
Person TypeIndividual
