Conflict

Robert Fremont Conover

Robert Conover, whose bold, calligraphic blockprints have the feeling of a stained glass window, did "Conflict" as a commission for the International Graphic Arts Society (IGAS) in 1961. The International Graphic Arts Society (IGAS) was a nonprofit organization founded in 1951 with the dual goals of promoting the work of contemporary printmakers and bringing print media to a wider audience. IGAS served as a driving force behind the post-World War II "Print Renaissance" in the United States for the next two decades.

There is an informative essay on Conover's printing method on page 156 of "The Stamp of Impulse: Abstract Expressionist Prints" by David Acton, Worcester Art Museum, 2001. ISBN 90-5349-353-0.

At the core of IGAS was a seven-member jury that was responsible for selecting the artists who would then be commissioned to produce editions that would eventually be sold to IGAS members. Among the programs offered by IGAS was an innovative print rental program for colleges and universities that assisted them in starting or developing a collection of contemporary prints. The commissions generally were printed in editions of 210, 100 for the US, 100 for international distribution and 10 proofs for the artist.

Printmaker and painter Robert Conover was born in Trenton, New Jersey, July 3, 1920. He secured his professional education in the Philadelphia Museum School, the Art Students League of New York, The Brooklyn Museum School and the Barnet Foundation, and under the tutelage of Will Barnet, Morris Kantor, Max Beckmann and Louis Schanker. Early works during the 1950's were geometric abstract paintings, with limited color. His style changed and became freer in the 1960's, strongly influenced by the Abstract Expressionists, and employing a fuller range of color. At this time he also made abstract and realistic woodcuts.

During the 1970's his work shifted to large colorful cardboard relief prints. These compositions were geometric and abstract, with an emphasis on strong diagonal movements. His work has been seen in the Brooklyn Museum Print Annual; at the Library of Congress; at New York's Museum of Modern Art; in the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art, and many other institutions. He has won many purchase prizes among which have been by the Society of American Graphic Artists and the Associated American Artists Gallery. He was an instructor of painting and graphics at the New School for Social Research and the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Arts. Robert Conover died in New York on October 5, 1998.