American, b. 1934
Born in 1934, Robert Barnes came to be a devoted champion boxer in his youth. With the support of the Windy City Boxing Club on the South Side of Chicago, he won the golden gloves award in 1951. Although this title marked both the beginning and end of his boxing career, Barnes retained those characteristics of a boxer which continue to set him apart in the slightly more gentile art world: a mastery and gracefulness of form, an undeviating combative spirit, and a stubborn sense of individuality.
After graduating from art school Barnes moved to New York City, where he met and interacted with several leading Surrealist artists, including Marcel Duchamp, Roberto Matta Echaurren, and Max Ernst. Even though he hung around with them, he says he “couldn’t be like the surrealists. I certainly enjoyed their thinking, but I couldn’t go that way. I just did what I did and I still am. It makes you unpopular, maybe for a lifetime, but I’d rather do that than be popular and doubt what I am.” During this period he also joined the James Joyce Society where he explored his interest in the multilayered writings of Joyce and other great authors.
From New York, Barnes moved to London, where he interacted with other artists including Francis Bacon, Peter Blake and Richard Hamilton, and then to Kansas City where he taught at the Kansas City Art Institute. While there he developed his long-held interest in the American southwest, particularly in Native American art and mysticism. Ultimately Barnes settled in Bloomington, where he taught in the art department of Indiana University for 35 years. In the 1970s Barnes was able to take a two-year sabbatical to the Umbria region of Italy, and he incorporated into his art many influences from the literature and poetry of this country. Barnes relocated to the coast of Maine, where he lives in a 180-year-old sea captain’s house.
After graduating from art school Barnes moved to New York City, where he met and interacted with several leading Surrealist artists, including Marcel Duchamp, Roberto Matta Echaurren, and Max Ernst. Even though he hung around with them, he says he “couldn’t be like the surrealists. I certainly enjoyed their thinking, but I couldn’t go that way. I just did what I did and I still am. It makes you unpopular, maybe for a lifetime, but I’d rather do that than be popular and doubt what I am.” During this period he also joined the James Joyce Society where he explored his interest in the multilayered writings of Joyce and other great authors.
From New York, Barnes moved to London, where he interacted with other artists including Francis Bacon, Peter Blake and Richard Hamilton, and then to Kansas City where he taught at the Kansas City Art Institute. While there he developed his long-held interest in the American southwest, particularly in Native American art and mysticism. Ultimately Barnes settled in Bloomington, where he taught in the art department of Indiana University for 35 years. In the 1970s Barnes was able to take a two-year sabbatical to the Umbria region of Italy, and he incorporated into his art many influences from the literature and poetry of this country. Barnes relocated to the coast of Maine, where he lives in a 180-year-old sea captain’s house.
