Robert Weaver at SVA
School of Visual Arts Collection: Poster for Robert Weaver: Retrospective 1956-1977.
In 1984, Marshall Arisman, chair of the newly inaugurated SVA MFA Program “Illustration as Visual Essay”, asked long-time faculty member Robert Weaver to develop and teach a new drawing course. In the introduction to the November 1997 issue of drawing/sva, Arisman recounts what Weaver told him about his conception for the class:
“After World War II Ben Shahn startled me with drawings and paintings of very ordinary people sitting on park benches. They were not heroic, but rather harsh. I’d like students to draw from life, people who are not professional models…real people with real lives…who would talk to them while they drew.”
For the class, Weaver brought in “belly dancers, street musicians, window washers, actors who put on their stage makeup in front of the class, nuns, ballet dancers, fireman and any number of interesting, eccentric and ordinary people he met in his daily travels.” Arisman called his friend and colleague “the undisputed pioneer of contemporary expressive illustration” and the first issue of drawing/sva (edited by Paul Davis) was devoted to the lyrical work and legacy of Weaver, who passed away in 1994.
School of Visual Arts Collection: Page from drawing/sva, November 1997, an issue devoted to the work of Robert Weaver.
Subway poster by Robert Weaver, 1950s.
School of Visual Arts Collection: Subway poster by Robert Weaver, 1983.
School of Visual Arts Collection: Poster for exhibition of Weaver’s work at SVA, 1959.
School of Visual Arts Collection. Course announcement, 1950s.
School of Visual Arts Collection. Course announcement, 1950s.
Comments
04 Jul
Thank you for this post on Robert Weaver. I wish I could have taken a class with him, but I was on the other side of the country and didn’t learn of him until I studied with Barron Storey in the lat 1980’s.
He was such an intelligent picture maker and thinker that I learn something new every time I look at one of his works. I love seeing the SVA posters you have posted.
Recently, I have been reading and responding to comments on another blog that featured some of Mr. Weaver’s early work. Unfortunately, a lot of the comments come from people who seem to love early American illustration and do not get Mr. Weaver’s work and seem intent on knocking him rather than trying to understand his work. I feel vindicated seeing your post, and am relieved that there is someone who still recognizes his brilliance and impact on the visual arts.
Please post more. Also, if any copies of the Drawings/SVA with his work in it are available, I would love to purchase a copy.
Best,
Bill Koeb
06 Jul
Glad you liked the post. I am also a huge fan of Weaver’s work, especially his early illustrations from the 1950s and 1960s, which share a sensibility with the early work of Bob Gill and Sal Jon Bue. Unfortunately, we don’t have any copies of drawing/sva for sale, but please stop by the archives if you’re ever in NYC to take a look at it here.