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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.Label Type
Cultural/Historical ContextLabel
"Robert Browning Reed Wabash River II Woodcut 24 x 181/2 in. Early 1970s Acc. No. 2005.04.03
Robert Browning Reed, a fellow Hoosier and West Lafayette resident, has had a lengthy and productive career spanning more than six decades. This includes twenty-nine years as a professor of printmaking and drawing at Purdue, and as an advisor to art and design students. Professor Browning retired in 1987, but has remained an active printmaker, exhibiting his work in Indianapolis, Lafayette, and other locations around the Midwest. His woodcut and screen print landscapes of Indiana and other parts of the Midwest have won him numerous awards and honors and a fine reputation as a contemporary American printmaker. Wabash River II is the second in a series of eight woodcut prints representing the Wabash River. Reed donated the prints exhibited here to Purdue University in 2005. Wabash River II depicts a view of the river familiar to Lafayette and West Lafayette residents. It is from the southwest bank near Tapawingo Park looking toward the downtown skyline. The distinctive silhouette of the Tippecanoe County Courthouse and other local architecture is unmistakable. In the middle ground, the pedestrian bridge boldly defines the horizon line. Leafless trees cut across the purplish-gray sky in the foreground, creating diagonals that open up the composition. In this woodcut, Reed used three shades of ink, and the violet ink effectively depicts the steely winter sky and creates atmospheric perspective to make the city skyline appear distant. A pale, grayish-white ink shows reflections on the water, and a black layer makes the trees appear very close to the viewer, besides dividing the composition horizontally in the bold line of the bridge. Reed created strong outlines through sharp cuts in the wood block used for the print. Reed’s style is strongly linear, and his landscape is naturalistic, yet bold and striking. The tone and lighting of his prints are suggestive and varied.
Melinda Hanley "