Hutton Honors College

"An Evening with Robert Colescott": A public conversation with artist Robert Colescott.

What is the purpose of art? Is it to criticize modern social institutions, to create a snapshot in time, to allow an artist to express him or herself, or to invite the audience to reexamine themselves and their ideas? Robert Colescott does all these things and more with his colorful and often shocking paintings. Born in 1925 in Oakland, California, where his parents moved in their desire to leave the heavily segregated south, he eventually attended the University of California at Berkeley, where he earned his bachelor's and master's degrees. He had an interest in international relations but recalls being advised that he could not expect to have a future in that field because he was African American. Instead, he was encouraged to study art, another area in which he had talent and interest.

Robert Colescott has become a provocative painter, famous for the satirical way in which he criticizes racism, often by replacing white figures from famous paintings with black caricatures or reversing black and white images from popular culture, as he did in his 1957 George Washington Carver Crossing the Delaware: Page From an American History Textbook. He taught for 43 years and retired in 1995 as the Regents' Professor of Art at the University of Arizona. In 1997, he became the first African American painter to represent the United States in a solo exhibition at the prestigious Venice Biennale. Professor Colescott will be visiting IU for two weeks as the Class of 1943 Wells Professor and will be participating in an Honors College course called Pressure Points: Contemporary Art that Challenges Us. At the reception, guests will be able to visit Pressure Points, a special exhibition of 54 prints by 23 artists, including Professor Colescott, on loan to the IU Art Museum from the renowned Schnitzer Foundation.

Please note the opportunity to attend "A Pizza Discussion Supper and Master Class with artist Robert Colescott" on Monday, Oct. 18, at 5:30 p.m. (Sign-up required)

Click here and scroll to bottom of page to see samples of Colescott's work

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