Artist lecture at ASU

Painter Robert Birmelin will give a free lecture about “The Evolution of the Artist’s Work” at 7:30 p.m., March 6, at ASU. Sponsored by the Herberger College of Fine Arts' School of Art, the lecture will take place in EDC C117, the lecture hall in the Farmer Education Building, located on the corner of Gammage Parkway and Forest Avenue. Birmelin will show a chronological survey of his paintings and drawings and talk about his ideas and methods.

From the mid 1970s until 1992, Robert Birmelin found his principal inspiration in the streets of New York City where he was fascinated by the crowds. His large paintings were about movement, focus, selective attention and the suggestion of the relationship between the depicted figures and the painting's viewer. More recently, the artist has sought to explore more inward, subjective aspects of his past. In the process he developed reversible compositions that give an initially credible depiction of place, but then reveal insoluble contradictions created by contrasting reverse images of equal visual weight. 

New Jersey-born Birmelin's paintings and drawings have been shown in nearly 50 solo exhibitions and numerous group shows. His work has also been acquired by 40 public collections including The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Smithsonian Institution's Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.  His work has been featured in "Art in America," "American Artist" and "Art Forum," and he has received numerous grants and awards from such organizations as The American Academy in Rome, The National Endowment for the Arts, The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation and the American Institute of Arts & Letters. 

Media Contact:
Jennifer Pringle
480-965-8795
jennifer.pringle@asu.edu