"Girl in Red," on exhibit at NCCU's art museum (Photo: Courtesy of Robert Blackburn)

Ask Kenneth G. Rodgers, N.C Central University’s art museum director, what he thinks about the museum’s current exhibit, “Creative Space — Fifty Years of Robert Blackburn’s Workshop,” and he won’t mince his words:

“I believe that this exhibit is one of the most important exhibits to be displayed in the Triangle area,” he said.

The exhibit, organized by The Library of Congress, the International Print Center of New York and The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, brings together the work of Blackburn and others, including Romare Bearden, Ernest Crichlow, Roy DeCarava and Jacob Lawrence. Their work is assembled in a section that Rodgers called “the wall of respect.”

Blackburn was born in Summit, N.J. in 1920. He grew up in Harlem.

Blackburn worked with printmaking, also called lithography: a process that engraves an image into a hard surface and then covers it with various shades of ink. When the ink settles into the indented lines it produces a contrast of colors, rough surfaces and smooth surfaces, which all work together in composing a complete work of art.

Blackburn learned lithography during the Great Depression as a teenager in New York at the Harlem Community Center, a project of the Works Progress Administration, a federal government program created during the Depression.

In his 20s he mastered his craft, working with the Art Student League.

He was influenced by Harlem Renaissance artists and the Mexican muralist tradition.

Blackburn opened his workshop in 1948 in Chelsea, a neighborhood in Manhattan.

The workshop was established as a non-profit corporation in 1971 to support and encourage Third World and minority artists.

It was renowned for its open, collaborative and creative atmosphere.

According to Rodgers, Blackburn’s workshop is the first place that comes to printmakers’ minds when they think about printmaking.

“We feel honored to have this show because of the individuals it honors. We are only one of three universities in the country to have this exhibition,” said Rodgers.

“He was one of the most open, warm individuals that one could imagine and this attitude extended throughout his workshop. “Even though he had assistants, he often conducted many of these workshops himself.”

The University Art Museum has aBlackburn prints in its permanent collection: “Refugee (or People on a Boat).” Rodgers covets it like a historian might covet the Holy Grail.

“We don’t loan this particular piece out to anyone,” Rodgers said, hardly able to contain his excitement.

“This is one of Blackburn’s most noted prints and there were only eight of these made. It is said that our museum has the only existing copy left.”