Professor Robert Graham
PROFESSOR ROBERT HENRY GRAHAM
B.A., Studio Art, California State University, Hayward, California
MFA, Painting, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin
Since 1983 he has been a Professor in Art at Virginia Tech. He has served as Director of the Armory Art Gallery (1983-1990). He is presently Studio Program Chair in the School of Visual Arts (2008-2010).
Robert Henry Graham was born in 1944 and raised in Chicago, Illinois. According to his mother
(Ms. MaryBelle Graham), the nun in charge of his first grade class at Holy Angels Grammar
School on Chicago’s South-side, would let him draw by himself in a corner of the classroom, in order that he wouldn’t disrupt the rest of the class with what she called his “antics”. Robert credits Robin Leigh, one-time co-owner of “The BlackMan’s” Art Gallery in San Francisco, California, who - in the late 60’s – for the first-time awakened his interest in expressing himself through art in painting. In 1980 he received his B.A. in Studio Art at California State University, Hayward and his M.F.A. in Painting (1983) from University of Wisconsin, Madison. Robert Henry produced 45 paintings in his first year as a full-time artist, and he remains prolific to this day. Robert Henry’s work today is painted compositions of multiple layers (anywhere from 40 to 70 layers) of color with each layer a different hue on mostly heavyweight gesso-ed paper. The paintings on paper can be multiple layered color-field paintings, cityscape silhouettes, symbols and forms, or figural/anatomical in content.
Robert Henry Graham’s work has been shown in 78 solo, two-person, and or 4-person exhibits; in addition his work has appeared in over 160 group exhibitions throughout the United States since 1968. He is listed in Thomas Albright’s Art in the San Francisco Bay Area 1945-1980: An Illustrated History (1985) as Robert Henry.