Oral history interview with Robert Noel Blair
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded 2 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 8 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 30 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Blair, Robert N. (Robert Noel), 1912-2003
label: Interviewer
content: Brown, Robert F.
label: Names
content: Albright Art School (Buffalo, N.Y.)
label: Names
content: Arts Institute of Buffalo
label: Names
content: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. School
label: Names
content: Burchfield, Charles Ephraim, 1893-1967
topic: label: Occupation
content: Art teachers -- New York (State) -- Buffalo -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Painting, American
label: Topic
content: Art -- Study and teaching -- New York (State) -- Buffalo
label: Topic
content: Art -- Study and teaching -- Massachusetts -- Boston
label: Topic
content: World War, 1939-1945 -- Art and the war
label: Topic
content: Printmakers -- New York (State) -- Buffalo -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Painters -- New York (State) -- Buffalo -- Interviews
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
creator: label: Interviewee
content: Blair, Robert N. (Robert Noel), 1912-2003
label: Interviewer
content: Brown, Robert F.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Robert Blair (1912-2003) is a painter, printmaker, and instructor of Buffalo, New York.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 2 Items (sound cassettes (2 hrs.), analog.)
label: Extent
content: 66 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1994 November 30-1995 August 27
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.blair94
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Interviews
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: Transcript is available on the Archives of American Art's website.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview with Robert Blair conducted 1994 November 30-1995 August 27, by Robert Brown, for the Archives of American Art.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Blair talks about his father, a Vermonter, who went to Harvard Law School and became a corporation lawyer in Buffalo, and his mother, a Rochester, New York native, who went to Cornell and taught Greek and Latin in New York State schools before marriage; being an indifferent student until he went to the Albright Art School in Buffalo, although instruction there was perfunctory; attending the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (1931-1934), recalling especially his two British drawing teachers, Guthrie and Burns, and Frederick Allen who taught sculpture, and fellow student, Carl Johnson, summers with his family in Vermont and the pleasant primitive farm life; his first teaching job -- Saturday children's classes at the Buffalo Museum of Science and his first exhibitions in Buffalo and New York City, including a show at the Morton Gallery, New York (1940) from which the Metropolitan Museum purchased a large watercolor; his love of using unusual implements to paint with; his service in World War II, in which he was assigned to design training aids and to paint war scenes.
label: Scope and Contents
content: Blair continues discussion of his service as an airborne soldier and artist in Belgium and Germany during World War II; returning from the War to direct the Arts Institute of Buffalo and his long friendship with Charles Burchfield; Philip Elliott, painter and teacher at the rival Albright Art School in Buffalo; traveling throughout the US and Mexico, painting wherever he camped; his work and proficiency in watercolor; and the value of figure studies, which he does regularly with other artists.