Robert Freimark

Born in 1922, American artist Bob Freimark hails from a period when artists were experimenting with multiple mediums to express their conceptual ideas. Over the course of his career, he chose to work in a wide variety of media to articulate the issues important to him including painting, watercolor, drawing, all print media, tapestry, sculpture, and recently video and film.

He was educated at the University of Toledo, before going on for an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Later he became a student of Max Weber, and was elected to New Talent in the USA in 1957. In the period from 1960-68 he created a series of serigraphs entitled "Fifty States" which depict the U.S. states, and were completed under the aegis of a California State Colleges Special Creative Leave. They became the official U.S. bicentennial offering in 1976, opening at the Amerika Haus in Munich. They have been shown throughout the world, and the National Museum in Washington has acquired the complete set together with all accompanying sketches, and plates.

Although he was born in the United States, Freimark was of European descent. In his piece, “Immigration Blues” we can see his sensitivity towards the immigrant situation. His placement of the patriotic colors red, white and blue at the top of the work symbolize the desired goal. Underneath it are various maze-like pathways to get to the same place; a metaphor for the multiple routes people have gone through to get into this country.
Freimark has over 250 solo exhibitions to his credit.

His works are in collections such as the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Fogg Museum, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, British Museum, Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, Honolulu Academy of Arts, Library of Congress, National Gallery in Prague, etc. He has lectured around the world, and was a Visiting Professor at Harvard University in 1972-73.

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Artist Statement

“I am an abstract-expressionist, but I am committed to the belief that all artists must thoroughly know and pursue the figure and the figurative genre, in the same sense that a pianist regularly practices the scale.” Methods of work: It is imperative that the artist seek and discover the most suitable media for the labor at hand, and to attempt to master whatever media he encounters, to achieve this goal. Recently, I have completed an exhibition called “Los Desaparecidos” which depicts my subjects in an all-media exhibit by one artist including film, which adds the dimensions of time and action.

I spent seven years of my life in the United States Navy, including all of World War II. I was on the ship with the best firing record throughout the war, where I was a pointer on a forty millimeter quad. The pointer is the man who aims and fires the guns. I was in 56 engagements with the Japanese. I came out of the experience disillusioned by the intelligence of our Naval officers, and totally against all war. As an artist, it is one of my commitments to relay this experience to my fellow citizens."

- Robert Freimark

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Biography

Born in 1922, he graduated from the University of Toledo, and went on for an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Later he was a student of Max Weber, and was elected to New Talent in the USA in 1957. In the period 1960-68 he created a series of serigraphs entitled “Fifty States” which depict the U.S. states, and were completed under the aegis of a California State Colleges Special Creative Leave. They became the official U.S. bicentennial offering in 1976, opening at the Amerika Haus in Munich. They have been shown throughout the world, and the National Museum in Washington has acquired the complete set together with all accompanying sketches, plates, etc.

Freimark has over 250 solo exhibitions to his credit in such institutions as the Toledo Museum of Art, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Morris and Sal peter Galleries in NYC, Santa Barbara Museum, Galerie Alliance in Copenhagen, etc. In 1990 he had shows in Stara Radnice in Brno and Strahov Kloster in Praha, Czechoslovakia. His works are in collections such as the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Fogg Museum, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, British Museum, Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, Honolulu Academy of Arts, Library of Congress, National Gallery in Prague, etc. He has lectured around the world, and was Visiting Professor at Harvard University in 1972-73.

In more recent years he was shown in “Künstler aus den USA” at Galerie Waiter Bischoff in Stuttgart, a major tapestry retrospective at Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara, CA, and exhibitions in Antigua and Guatemala City, as well as Kunstostbayern in Viechtach, Germany, Amerika Haus in Stuttgart (1992), and Galerie Saint Cenerei-Ie-Gerei in France (1992). He has been invited to participate in the Quincentennial Exhibition of the Discovery of America at the Triton Museum of Art in 1992 In February 2010 Bob Freimark passed away in San Jose, CA.

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