EFA Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop is the oldest and longest-running community print shop in the United States. In addition to being a co-operative printmaking workspace that provides professional-quality printmaking facilities to artists and printmakers of every skill level, EFA RBPMW is committed to inspiring and fostering its diverse artistic community.
Dedicated to the making of fine art prints in an environment that embraces technical and aesthetic exploration, innovation, and collaboration, the organisation seeks to improve the overall quality of fine art printmaking by providing low-cost, unfettered access to printers, equipment, and education. It is with this spirit of openness and inclusion that Robert Blackburn’s vision of sustaining a welcoming, creative environment continues to serve as the backbone of the workshop today.
Son of Jamaican immigrant parents, Robert Blackburn (1920-2003) settled with his family in Harlem in 1927. Over the next few years he would become fully immersed in the neighborhood’s vibrant art scene, attending local art centers such as Harlem Arts Workshop, the Uptown Art Laboratory, Charles Alston’s 306 Studio (where he was one of the youngest members), and later at governmentfunded (FAP-WPA) Harlem Arts Community Center. This merging of civic and community space greatly influenced his core ethos on the importance of artistic exchange.
After Blackburn’s studies at the Art Students League ended, the post-war boom funding for these centres had dissipated and racial segregation continued. In the late winter of 1947 he acquired a lithography press and formed a collaborative home workshop, attracting an international group of participants and resulting in a rich and diverse output of print work.
In 1971 he incorporated as a nonprofit organisation called The Printmaking Workshop. In his own work, Blackburn focused on Cubist-inspired compositions and vivid abstractions. Alongside managing the workshop, he extensively taught as a university educator and served as the inaugural master printer for Universal Limited Art Editions from 1957 to 1963 where he collaborated with renowned artists like Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Helen Frankenthaler. His artistic influences spanned from the Harlem Renaissance to European Abstractionism.
In 2001, Blackburn closed the space as he began to suffer from health issues and passed away in 2003. The workshop reopened in 2005 as part of the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, where it continues to provide space for artists and honours Blackburn’s contributions to the graphic arts.
Last year, EFA RBPMW began filming oral histories centring the ongoing story of the workshop’s impact, made possible by support from Hauser & Wirth Institute. The collection, produced by Camille Crain Drummond, will go to the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library at Emory University, where it will live among The Camille Billops and James V. Hatch Archives—in the true spirit of the intrepid duo’s early oral histories covering Bob’s cultural legacy.
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