ALL: Master Collection List
Nationality
American
Preview
Date of Work
1980
Medium
Serigraph
Edition #
13 of 300
Signature
Lower right
Height
34"
Width
41"
Collection/Provenance
Art & Design Study Collection
Status
On display: Third floor
Location
Memorial Union
Artist Bio
R. Geoffrey Blackburn studied at the University of Utah and studied privately but considers himself a self-taught artist. After some years without much success, Blackburn’s father-in-law got him a mining job, prospecting and promoting uranium. This worked out two-fold for Blackburn. Not only was this right before the uranium boom in the 1970’s, which garnered Blackburn a good amount of money, but the red rocks of the canyon country that Blackburn now worked at became a huge inspiration for his art. It was this era of his artwork that gained him some notoriety and began winning him awards. While Blackburn mostly works with paintings, he did also create his own type of art that played with multiple layers to create a multi-dimensional effect, the technique of which he patented in 1990. Examples of this unique art style and his other paintings are on his website.
Additional Information
Student composed text panel:
R. Geoffrey Blackburn (American 1947)
Red Canyons, 1980
Serigraph
UND Art Collections: Art and Design Study Collection
Gift of Roland Mower
Red Canyons is a result of a failed business venture that inspired Blackburn to escape in his artwork. The piece focuses on the landscape of a canyon with varieties of orange and red colors that contrast with the beautiful light blue coloring in the sky. The landscape is complete with the dark green shrubbery that can be seen in the bottom right corner of the painting. The canyons start to fade out in the back of the painting, where it starts to blend in with the color of the sky. These details help complete the landscape, adding to its realism. The large scale of this piece gives the viewer the feeling of standing at the edge of the canyon, looking over the land with a feeling of being on top of the world.
Condition
Excellent
Rights
Images are provided for educational purposes only and may not be reproduced for commercial use. Images may be protected by artist copyright. A credit line is required to be used for any public non-commercial educational purpose. The credit line must include, “Image courtesy of the University of North Dakota.”