Robert Vickers

Robert Vickers (1924–1988) was an American artist.

After WWII, Vickers studied art at SUNY Geneseo (BA), Columbia (MFA), with postgraduate work at École des Beaux-Arts, Académie Julian, Ohio State University and the British Museum. His teaching career took him from Associate Professor of Fine Arts at Ohio to Scuola Vicenza, Vicenza, Italy to Ohio University and finally to Professor of Art at Hope College and Professor of Art at IES in Paris.

Awards

He garnered a number of awards during his career, including purchase prizes
*Thomas Potts Award
*two Louise Sheperd Hengst Memorial Prizes
*Frank Tibbetts Memorial Prize
*John Feingher Award

and other purchase awards from
*Dayton Art Institute
*Capitol University
*Otterbein College
*Festival ‘78 in Michigan
*Watercolor USA

Other First Places included ones at
*the Ohio State Fair
*the Battle Creek 100th Centennial
*Artist of Southern Ohio.

Other award venues included
*Ohio Valley Competition
*distinguished Alumni Award from SUNY Geneseo

In addition, he earned a number of research grants and fellowships including for the study of African Art. The design qualities of those cultures and his innovative 3-D paintings using wax and folded canvas are among his most important contributions in technique, but ultimately the power of his composition and colors carry his art.

Exhibitions

By his own count, he had almost 40 “major” solo exhibitions in his career in his adopted state of Ohio, Chicago and other venues in the midwest, four at Gallerie Internationale in New York City, and ones in Mexico City, Vicenza, Paris, and Milan. He took part in the landmark Art USA Invitational. He exhibited at the Butler Institute, the Grand Rapids Art Museum, the Gallery of Art in DC, and many others including ones abroad. His work was included in permanent collections of museums and corporations in Alabama, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Mexico, France and Italy.

Reception

His work has been reviewed widely including articles in Valigia Diplomatica (Milan, Italy), La Revue Moderne (Paris, France), Nuova Critica Europea Arte (Ancona, Italy)many times in Arts Magazine, New York Times, The Herald Tribune, Columbus Dispatch, Midland Daily News, Midland Daily News, Grand Rapids Press, Detroit Artist Monthly, Ann Arbor News, and various Milan and Vicenza Newspapers. His “Chateau in Winter” is illustrated in Margaret Harrold’s Prize-Winning Oil Paintings, he is discussed in Artists in Michigan 1900-1976, and his work appears in a 1971 international anthology of poems entitled Original Works.