Paper

2005.04

Robert Browning Reed

Gift

Gift of the Artist

Title

Bottom left of print

Dunes, South Shore

In Artist's HandPencil

Signature

Bottom right of print

Robert Browning Reed

PencilIn Artist's Hand

Print number and run

Center bottom of print

6/16

PencilIn Artist's Hand

Matting

24 in

26 in

Sheet

20 in

21 in

Image

14 in

16 in

“Great Outdoors” (2012)

Cultural/Historical Context

Professor emeritus Robert Reed (1922-2007) taught printmaking and drawing at Purdue from 1958 until 1987. Reed’s life works include drawing, painting, sculpture, pottery, and printmaking. He also created silver jewelry, masks, mobiles, and birdhouses.

Cultural/Historical Context

"Robert Browning Reed attended Indiana University, where he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1948, and in 1950, he received further training at the Escuela de Pentura y Escultura in Mexico City. Shortly afterward, he returned to Indiana University to obtain his MFA degree. Reed started teaching at Purdue University in 1958 and retired in 1987, after serving twenty-nine years in what was then called the Department of Creative Arts. Reed’s prints can be found in over 150 private and institutional collections, and they have been shown in over 150 national, international, and regional exhibitions. Reed’s technique has changed from woodcuts to prints made in the intaglio and serigraphy techniques; the print entitled Indiana Dunes, South Shoreline is done in the silkscreen method. It was produced during the middle part of his career. This print depicts one of the many sites in the Indiana Dunes State Park, and it shows wild grasses growing atop the sand. The viewer can see a path within the dune, probably part of one of the many trails in the State Park. The top quarter of the landscape represents the skyline, and the rest of the image is composed of the dune itself. The colors Reed used to create this image are matte in tone, something typical of serigraphs. Shades of purple, green, and burgundy enhance the plant life; yellow is used for the sand; and a light pink depicts the skyline. Black breaks up the solidity of the colors and emphasizes details. Quick strokes depict individual blades of the tall grasses. The South Shore image creates an impressionistic effect in its subtle polychromy. Reed specialized in landscape imagery in much of his printmaking. This work is a landmark in the world of printmaking of the American Midwest. Indiana Dunes, South Shoreline complements the woodcuts Robert Reed made of the Wabash River and all of these images represent regions in Reed’s home state of Indiana. The images of the river shore, done primarily in a single color, contrasts nicely with the matted flat colors in the South Shore image. One difference between Reed’s Wabash images and his print of the dunes is that the South Shore scene appears impressionistic vis-à-vis the more straightforward Wabash images. The manner of depicting the grasses in the South Shore image suggests they were drawn rapidly onto the silkscreen. By contrast, the Wabash images feature realistic detail, visible, for example, in the architectural background of Wabash II. Amy Pivovarnik "