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Ad Code: 3
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An example of work by Kathleen Blackshear
Artwork images are copyright of the artist or assignee
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This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  A teacher of art history at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1926 to 1961, Kathleen Blackshear was active in the art community there and in Navasota, Texas her birth and death place. She lectured at Witte Museum and School of McNey Art Institute in San Antonio, and at an annual series for members of the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. In 1968, she was named Professor Emeritus at the Art Institute of Chicago.
As a painter, graphic artist, and ceramist, she created work that included small town genre scenes and studies of African-Americans. Much influenced by French painter Paul Cezanne, some of her painting is focused on Fauve-like color and flat, two dimensionality.
Blackshear was born and raised in Navasota, Texas and began art lessons at age twelve. In 1917, she graduated from Baylor University in Waco, and then she went to New York to study at the Art Students League. Her teachers were Gutzon Borglum, George Bridgman, and Frank Vincent DuMond. In 1918, she moved to Los Angeles, where she worked as a commercial artist and telephone operator.
After living briefly in Navasota, she attended the Art Institute of Chicago between 1924 and 1927. One of her teachers was art historian Helen Gardner, who stimulated Blackshear's interest in Asian and African art subjects. For Gardner, she illustrated two revised editions of her textbooks, "Art Through the Ages" (1926) and "Understanding the Arts" (1932). She also did two dioramas for the 1933 Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago, and illustrated "Art Has Many Faces" by Katherine Kuh.
Beginning 1926, she was teaching occasional classes at the Art Institute and in 1933, she became a regular teaching assistant to Gardner. In 1940 Blackshear received a Master of Fine Arts from the Institute, and remained as a professor until 1961. She briefly maintained a studio in Houston and spent many summers at her home in Navasota, and retired there in 1961. She also did sketching in Arizona, New Mexico, and Mexico.
Source:
Phil Kovinick and Marian Yoshiki-Kovinick, "An Encyclopedia of Women Artists of the American West"
John and Deborah Powers, "Texas Painters, Sculptors, and Graphic Artists"
Louise Dunn Yochim, "Role and Impact: The Chicago Society of Artists"
Marianne Richter, "Union League Club of Chicago Art Collection"
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Biography from ARTexas:
| A Navasota, Texas native, Kathleen Blackshear studied at the Art
Students League and the Art Institute of Chicago. Later she
taught at Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College (now Texas A &
M University), Tarleton State College, and the School of the Art
Institute of Chicago (1926-61).
Blackshear exhibited in the Houston and Fort Worth annuals, and at the
Texas Centennial Exposition. The Museum of Fine Arts,
Houston, and the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum own her work. |
| ** If you discover credit omissions or have additional information to add, please let us know at registrar@AskART.com. |
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