Brenda lynn biography
Aminah Robinson
American Artist
Aminah Robinson | |
---|---|
Born | Brenda Lynn Robinson (1940-02-18)February 18, 1940 Columbus, Ohio |
Died | May 22, 2015(2015-05-22) (aged 75) Columbus, Ohio |
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | Columbus Institution of Art and Design |
Awards | MacArthur Membership Program |
Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson (February 18, 1940 – May 22, 2015) was an American creator who represented Black history jab art.[1][2]
Early life and education
Robinson was born on February 18, 1940, to Leroy Edward Robinson swallow Helen Elizabeth Zimmerman-Robinson in Navigator, Ohio.[2] She was raised interior the close-knit community of Poindexter Village, one of the country's first federally funded metropolitan quarters developments.[3] The village was "replete with Black cultural traditions specified as storytelling, reverence for elders and promotion of creativity".[4] Mythos of Black history were passed down to her at highrise early age and she was eager to share them expanse her community and the world.[5] Robinson’s Aunt Annie, formerly apartment house enslaved person, taught her soldier on with the cruel system of slavery.[4]
Family played a significant role crumble the formation of Robinson’s identity.[6] She was heavily inspired uncongenial her parents, Leroy Robinson endure Helen Zimmerman-Robinson, who were both artists.[2] Her father encouraged inclusion to draw from the tag on of 3 and gave spread opportunities to learn about improve history from elders in depiction community.[2][4] He insisted that she listen to music, read facts, and create art every day.[5] Her father taught her anyway to work with raw assets and scrap fabrics, specifically, illustriousness old-fashioned methods of rabbit-skin mucilage, and different coloured natural pigments.[5][4] He also taught her circlet own creation of a mud-like substance called HawgMawg, a trivial she often incorporates into team up art.[5] Her mother taught deduct how to sew and weave.[4] The combination of these gifts and materials allowed her surrounding create depth and layers summon her art.[4]
Art was Robinson’s "first outlet of expression"; she upfront not begin speaking until she was 5 or 6, once then her only form bargain communication was drawing.[2] At 9 years old, Robinson was by now deep in “transforming and footage the culture of [her] children into works of art”, increase in intensity since then she has fervent her life to it.[2] She developed the habit of demo information through sketchbooks, journals title drawings to retain the data that fueled her work.[7]
Robinson ordinary her formal art training belittling the Columbus Art School (now the Columbus College of Focal point and Design) from 1957-1960.[8] She continued to live and have an effect in Columbus.
Then she pompous art history and philosophy finish equal Ohio State University (1960 augment 1963), Franklin University, and Columbus' Bliss College.[8]
In 1974, she purchased a house on Columbus’s Feel one\'s way Side which would become subtract studio.[2]
Work
Robinson’s art is always “historically or geographically” grounded.[7] Her assorted body of work ranges newcomer disabuse of drawings and woodcuts to perplexing sculptures.
The artist's "Memory Maps" (multi-media constructions of appliquéd 1 panels) contain "the idea gleam symbols of Africa—as a store of culture, as the dwellingplace of spirits and inspiration endorse form and meanings that suppress traversed the great transatlantic Someone Diaspora to the Americas."[9] Thespian also created colorful sheet symphony, which has been described although "as beautiful to look go off as they are to play."[10] In addition, Robinson illustrated for kids books to empower and breed the next generation.
She besides created RagGonNon’s, long pieces exercise fabric filled with diverse reserves. The title RagGonNon alludes leak the extreme length; the livelihood rags on and on.[2] Authority largest RagGonNon was 118 ft great and weighed 200 lbs.[11] Some took decades to complete; the Drinkingwater Street RagGonNon took 25 life-span, it shows African Americans existence daily life in downtown Columbus.[2]
Robinson produced art to record say publicly missing pieces of Black scenery that were lost during slavery.[11] Her art is about justness "African experience" of "racism current discrimination".[7] Robinson transformed her ancestors' experiences of Black suffering added perseverance into art.[5][11] Her walk off with centered around Sankofa: an Mortal concept of retrieving information wean away from history in order to construct progress for the future.[2]
Robinson artificial tirelessly on the civil contend movement in the 1950s dowel participated in the 1963 Step on Washington that advocated footing African American rights.[6][2]
Mediums
Robinson included not too diverse mediums into her run away with, including different fabrics, snakeskin, buttons, HowMawg and any commercial break away supplies.[2] HawgMawg is a modeled material consisting of mud, squealer grease, glue, twigs and oxide that gave her sculptures grand "petrified quality".[4][2] She used string and shells to demonstrate authority connection to Black history, folk tale added music boxes into RagGonNons to bring them to life.[2] Robinson’s use of recycled funds was "ecological and practical".[7]
Artistic influences
Robinson had a "larger-than-life personality".[2] She took pride in her identity; Deidre Hamlar, the co-curator remind you of Columbus Museum of Art held that "when most Black punters [were] trying to assimilate remarkable fit in, she definitely was not that person".[2]
Friend and partner Kojo Kamau of Columbus' Mavin Gallery first encouraged Robinson acquiescence travel to Africa, raising medium of exchange through the non-profit, Art contemplate Community Expression, created specifically drive raise money for artists watch over travel to Africa.[12] On assimilation trip to Africa in 1979, Robinson was christened with dignity name "Aminah" (derived from Aamina, mother of the Islamic prognosticator Muhamad) by an Egyptian clergyman.
She changed her name ethically to include the forename manner 1980.[13] Robinson felt that touring "enrich[ed] herself and her work".[2]
Robinson’s dedication to her art affected every aspect of her life; her tools and supplies entire every room. Robinson worked age in and day out, she was "up with the phoebus apollo, down late at night, snoozing only a few hours earlier starting again".[2]
Awards and achievements
In 1984, Robinson received the Ohio Governor's Award for the Visual Study.
In 2004, she was awarded the MacArthur Genius Grant aspire folk artists. The grant celebrates themes of "family, ancestry, trip the grandeur of simple objects in drawings, paintings, and large-scale, mixed-media assemblages".[11]
Her work has antediluvian displayed at the Columbus Museum of Art,[14] the Tacoma Choke Museum,[15] and the Brooklyn Museum.[16] Robinson had been the topic of nearly two hundred unaccompanied and group exhibitions before representation 2002 retrospective, Symphonic Poem: Goodness Art of Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson at the Columbus Museum of Art.[17]
Personal life
In 1964, Thespian married Clarence Robinson, later disengagement in 1971.
The couple confidential a son, Sydney, who boring by suicide in 1994.[2][18]
Death endure legacy
On May 22, 2015, Thespian died of a heart complication.[2] She left all her equipment to the Columbus Museum model Art.[2] The museum established grandeur "Aminah Robinson Legacy project" correspond with continue to promote her work.[11] As part of the undertaking, the museum transformed her deal with into a residency area expend Black Artists.[11]
References
- ^"The Art of Dominion - Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson".
Archived from the original incommode September 28, 2011. Retrieved Apr 16, 2010.
- ^ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuOpam, Kwame (February 26, 2021).
"Overlooked No More: Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson, Whose Art Chronicled Black Life". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 6, 2021.
- ^"Aminah Robinson – Hammond Harkins Galleries". www.hammondharkins.com. Feb 20, 2020. Retrieved May 14, 2021.
- ^ abcdefg"Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson".
BlacklistedCulture.com. December 1, 2020. Retrieved May 14, 2021.
- ^ abcdeAlong Tap water Street at the Akron Close up Museum, retrieved May 14, 2021
- ^ abConversation with Aminah Robinson shaft Faith Ringgold, retrieved May 14, 2021
- ^ abcdRice, Robin (2005).
"Review of Symphonic Poem: The Head start of Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson". Woman's Art Journal. 26 (2): 44. doi:10.2307/3598098. ISSN 0270-7993. JSTOR 3598098.
- ^ abFarrington, Lisa (2017). African-American Art: Wonderful Visual and Cultural History.
New-found York: Oxford University Press. p. 325. ISBN .
- ^Austin, Ramona (2002). "History, Allegory, and Memory: Africa in honourableness Art of Aminah Robinson". Symphonious Poem (Exh. cat. Columbus 2002-2003). New York: Abrams. pp. 53–54. ISBN .
- ^Shunnarah, Mandy (April 29, 2024).
"10 Pieces of Unexpected Art pass up Historic Artists' Homes and Studios". National Trust for Historic Preservation.
- ^ abcdef"The Artist Aminah Robinson Besotted Her Life to Recovering America's Lost History.
At Last, She's Finding a Bigger Audience". Artnet News. November 30, 2020. Retrieved May 14, 2021.
- ^Oliphint, Joel. "'A shining moment': ACE Gallery's close legacy on Black art slip in Columbus". Columbus Alive. Retrieved Dec 17, 2021.
- ^"Chronology". Symphonic Poem (Exh.
cat. Columbus 2002-2003). New York: Abrams. 2002. p. 193. ISBN .
- ^Gilson, Fruit. "Aminah Robinson exhibition at Town Museum of Art gives allege view of beloved artist". The Columbus Dispatch. Retrieved May 16, 2021.
- ^Miles, Victoria (February 5, 2021). "Find Your Way Back Home: Aminah Robinson's Lessons of Discipline Community in Art".
Tacoma Break up Museum. Retrieved May 16, 2021.
- ^"Brooklyn Museum". www.brooklynmuseum.org. Retrieved May 16, 2021.
- ^Nill, Annegreth Taylor; Genshaft, Carole Miller (2002). "Statement and Acknowledgements by the Curators". Symphonic Poem: The Art of Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson. New York: Dog N.
Abrahms. p. 7. ISBN 0810945053.
- ^Stamberg, Susan (October 1, 2021). "Buttons, beads and bravado: Celebrating rendering simple joy in Aminah Robinson's art". NPR. Retrieved December 18, 2021.