Carl Blair
Encyclopedia
Carl Blair is an artist
and was for more than forty years a member of the art faculty at Bob Jones University
.
, Blair earned a B. A. in art at the University of Kansas
and a M.F.A. from the Kansas City Art Institute
. In addition to his teaching at BJU, he also served on the art faculty at KCAI summer programs and as a member of the cooperating faculty at the Greenville County Museum of Art.
Blair exhibited his work in more than a hundred museums, art galleries and universities and won more than ninety national, state, and regional awards. His works have been purchased for more than 2500 private, corporate, and public collections. His exhibitions include the Art in Embassies Program; Ringling Museum of Art; Morris Museum, Augusta, Ga.; and the Hunter Museum, Chattanooga, Tenn. In 1995, the Greenville County Museum of Art in Greenville, S.C., hosted a major retrospective of his work. In 2000, a 40-year retrospective show was held at the South Carolina State Museum
in Columbia. Blair refers to his style as “neither realistic nor abstract. I refer to my work as visual poetry.” Although best known for his oil, gouache
, and acrylic paintings, late in his career, Blair began exhibiting sculpture, especially whimsical animals crafted of plywood or spruce pine
boards. He recalled telling his BJU students to "never, never grow up and take yourself seriously."
Curiously, Blair did not discover that he was color-blind until he was an art student at the University of Kansas. Asked to do a self-portrait, he painted himself green. Although he once called his color-blindness an asset because he was “not hindered by color combinations,” in the 1990s, he began to wear a red contact lens in his left eye to help differentiate colors.
Blair was a member of the South Carolina Arts Commission for twelve years and also served as chairman of the commission for two years. In 1970, he and two other members of the Bob Jones University art faculty, Emery Bopp
and Darell Koons
, founded Hampton III Gallery, one of the first commercial galleries in Upstate South Carolina. In 2005 Blair was awarded the Verner Award for Lifetime Achievement, the highest award given by the state of South Carolina in the arts.
Artist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
and was for more than forty years a member of the art faculty at Bob Jones University
Bob Jones University
Bob Jones University is a private, for-profit, non-denominational Protestant university in Greenville, South Carolina.The university was founded in 1927 by Bob Jones, Sr. , an evangelist and contemporary of Billy Sunday...
.
Biography
A native of Atchison, KansasAtchison, Kansas
Atchison is a city situated along the Missouri River in the eastern part of Atchison County, located in northeast Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 11,021. It is the county seat and most populous city of Atchison County...
, Blair earned a B. A. in art at the University of Kansas
University of Kansas
The University of Kansas is a public research university and the largest university in the state of Kansas. KU campuses are located in Lawrence, Wichita, Overland Park, and Kansas City, Kansas with the main campus being located in Lawrence on Mount Oread, the highest point in Lawrence. The...
and a M.F.A. from the Kansas City Art Institute
Kansas City Art Institute
The Kansas City Art Institute is a private, independent, four-year college of fine arts and design founded in 1885 in Kansas City, Missouri....
. In addition to his teaching at BJU, he also served on the art faculty at KCAI summer programs and as a member of the cooperating faculty at the Greenville County Museum of Art.
Blair exhibited his work in more than a hundred museums, art galleries and universities and won more than ninety national, state, and regional awards. His works have been purchased for more than 2500 private, corporate, and public collections. His exhibitions include the Art in Embassies Program; Ringling Museum of Art; Morris Museum, Augusta, Ga.; and the Hunter Museum, Chattanooga, Tenn. In 1995, the Greenville County Museum of Art in Greenville, S.C., hosted a major retrospective of his work. In 2000, a 40-year retrospective show was held at the South Carolina State Museum
South Carolina State Museum
The South Carolina State Museum, located in Columbia, South Carolina, is the largest museum in the Southeastern United States. Positioned on an old shipping canal on the Congaree River that dates back to pre-Civil War times, the museum is widely recognized as a resource for South Carolina history...
in Columbia. Blair refers to his style as “neither realistic nor abstract. I refer to my work as visual poetry.” Although best known for his oil, gouache
Gouache
Gouache[p], also spelled guache, the name of which derives from the Italian guazzo, water paint, splash or bodycolor is a type of paint consisting of pigment suspended in water. A binding agent, usually gum arabic, is also present, just as in watercolor...
, and acrylic paintings, late in his career, Blair began exhibiting sculpture, especially whimsical animals crafted of plywood or spruce pine
Spruce Pine
Pinus glabra is a tree found on the coastal plains of the southern United States, from southern South Carolina south to northern Florida and west to southern Louisiana...
boards. He recalled telling his BJU students to "never, never grow up and take yourself seriously."
Curiously, Blair did not discover that he was color-blind until he was an art student at the University of Kansas. Asked to do a self-portrait, he painted himself green. Although he once called his color-blindness an asset because he was “not hindered by color combinations,” in the 1990s, he began to wear a red contact lens in his left eye to help differentiate colors.
Blair was a member of the South Carolina Arts Commission for twelve years and also served as chairman of the commission for two years. In 1970, he and two other members of the Bob Jones University art faculty, Emery Bopp
Emery Bopp
Emery Bopp was an artist and long-time chairman of the Division of Art, Bob Jones University.-Early life and education:...
and Darell Koons
Darell Koons
Darrell John Koons an American painter, was for forty years a member of the art faculty at Bob Jones University.-Biography:...
, founded Hampton III Gallery, one of the first commercial galleries in Upstate South Carolina. In 2005 Blair was awarded the Verner Award for Lifetime Achievement, the highest award given by the state of South Carolina in the arts.