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Robert Wilbert (Detroit Portrait series)
Robert Wilbert (Detroit Portrait series)

Robert Wilbert (Detroit Portrait series)

Artist (American)
Date2003 - 2005
MediumArchival pigment print on cotton rag paper
DimensionsPaper Size: 20 × 16 in. (50.8 × 40.6 cm) Frame Size: 26 1/2 × 22 1/2 in. (67.3 × 57.2 cm)
ClassificationsPhotograph
Object numberUAC6105
DescriptionBorn and raised in Chicago, Robert Wilbert received his BFA and MFA from the University of Illinois and after graduation moved to Michigan to begin his teaching career. Wilbert first taught at the Flint Institute of Arts before moving to Detroit in 1956 to join the faculty at Wayne State University. In addition to his work at Wayne State, Wilbert was the director of the AAA Gallery in Detroit, which hosted artists such as Gerome Kamrowski, Allen Leepa, and Milton Cohen under his direction. Wilbert’s personal work evolved from abstract expressionism in the early 1960s to a more realistic approach in later years. He is best known for his still-lifes, and his skill in both oil and watercolor is punctuated by his strong brushwork and knowledge of the formal elements of art. Wilbert has had solo exhibitions at the Park Gallery in Detroit, the University of Illinois, the Donald Morris Gallery in Birmingham, and the J.B. Speed Museum in Louisville, Kentucky. Wilbert has been included in over twenty group exhibitions, and has won several awards for his work. In 2011, Detroit Focus published Robert Wilbert: Ennobling the Ordinary, chronicling his work and history in Detroit in the ’60s.
Collections
Portrait of Irvine D. Reid
Robert J. Wilbert
2010
Plaster Elephant and Zinnia
Robert J. Wilbert
1979
Photo credit Tim Thayer
Robert J. Wilbert
1960
Olga with Raised Arms
Robert J. Wilbert
c. 1965
Portrait of Paul Andrews
Nancy Mitchnick
1990
Aretha
Kristin Beaver
2009
Portrait Series #XXI: Jay Noren
Stanley Louis Rosenthal
2010
Issue 19
The Alternative Press
c. 1992
Columns and Pine Trees
Nancy Mitchnick
1985
Old and New Dreams
Mel Rosas
1987
Photo Credit Michelle Andonian & Tim Thayer
William Nichols
1988