Cooper Hewitt says...
Born as Robert Clark in New Castle, Indiana on 13 September 1928.
Education: Studied at John Herron School of Art, Indianapolis, 1946; Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, New York 1947-48; School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1949-53, BFA 1953; University of Edinburg and Edinburg Colleg of Art, 1953-43.
Served in the US Army, 1947-49. Artist-in-residence at Center of Contemporary Art, Aspen, Colorado in summer 1968. Desiged 8 cent U.S. Postage stamp in 1973 which 400 million were printed.
Recipient: George Brown Travelling Fellow, 1953; summer Scholarship, Snowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine 1953; Indiana Arts Commission Award, 1973; D.F.A. at Uinversity of Indiana, Bloomington, 1977.
Other exhibitions in 1966: Stable Gallery, New York; Galerie Alfred Schmela, Dusseldorf; Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands, Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld, Germany; Wür Hernbergisicher Kunstrerein, Stuttgart.
Pop-artist who used sign lettering combined with bold hard edge treatment in style of Ellsworth Kelly who was influential after their encounter. Simple geometric shapes are emblazed with stencilled inscriptions in strong billboard colors. His stle is simple, uncompromising imagery and common absence of any personality in physical handling of medium.
