Morris Blackburn was born in Philadelphia and spent his career in the city. After schooling at the Philadelphia Trade School and work in the Hog Island shipbuilding yard, he began his art training in 1922 at the Graphic Sketch Club. He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1925 to 1929, winning two Cresson Traveling Scholarships. In the mid-1930s he participated in the Public Works Art Project, executing murals for the Mastbaum Vocational School and Haverford High School. He began his long teaching career in 1932 at the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art. Around 1936-37 Blackburn attended the private classes of Arthur B. Carles, who became his close friend and mentor.
He worked in a wide variety of media, using Philadelphia or New Jersey scenes as his subjects. His style emphasized strong compositional elements, and often recalled his early concern with abstraction. He was the subject of several films. “Portrait of a Painter” was completed in 1959 by Emidio Angelo. “South Jersey Sketchbook” was made for Channel 52 in Philadelphia, and “Time-Binding,” a film about his teaching and painting methods, was in progress during the last years of his life.
The above biography was excerpted from the lengthier information in Philadelphia: Three Centuries of American Art, (Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1976), pp. 584-86. Morris Blackburn: participation in regional exhibitions (other than the annual exhibitions) at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. All catalogues available from the PAFA Archives.
Self-Portrait
Factory No. 2
Self-Portrait
Group
Group
Group
Study for "Appalachian Spring"
Study for "Appalachian Spring"
Study for "Appalachian Spring", Theme B-II)
Arroyo Hondo (New Mexico)
Hondo Valley (Arroyo Hondo, New Mexico)
[Abstract still life]
Study for "Appalachian Spring" (Capehart Advertisement)
Study for "Appalachian Spring" (Capehart Advertisement)
[Still-life]
Study for "Lines, Textures and Space"
Study of "Lines, Textures and Space"
Study for "Lines, Textures and Space"
[Abandoned dock]
[Abstract still life]
[Abstracted female figure in a landscape]
[Abstraction]
[Elephant]
[Figure in a surrealist landscape]
[Hand]
[Harbor scene]
[Industrial scene]
[Landscape: Taos sunset]
[Merinae State Park]
Study for "Jersey Shore"
[Street scene]
[Wharf scene with debris]
Seated Nude
Taxco
Appalachian Spring I
Jersey Shore
Lines, Textures and Space
Mast and Lines
Untitled (Abstract Figure)
Untitled (Standing Nude)
Self-Portrait
Self-Portrait
Self-Portrait
Self-Portrait
Self-Portrait
Self-Portrait
Self-Portrait
Self-Portrait
Self-Portrait
Landscape Forms
Wellfleet
[Abstract figure]
Morris Blackburn, Legacy of an Artist by John Thorton
1930 #464. Still Life
1939 #16. Figure: Sally-Jo; #30. Figure
1940 #383. Landscape
1942 #392. Still Life
1943 #302. Edith Saunders
1944 #345. Fisherman's House
1945 #1. Still Life
1946 #266. Abstraction
1947 #153. Gloucester
1948 #252. Still Life with Mask
1949 #319. Jersey Shore
1950 #263. Night Lights
1951 #146. Rocks and Docks
1952 #185. Barnegat Framed
1953 #158. Dock and Debris
1954 #152. Lobster Dock
1956 #226. Billboard
1958 #38. Golgotha
1959 #340. The Fountain (water color and gouache) $300.00; #341. The Mission - Taxco (gouache) $300.00; #342. Taxco (water color) $400.00
1960 #23. Adobe
1962 #33. Sangre De Christo
1964 #2. New Mexico Landscape
1966 #124. Corson's
1968 #22. Fog in Maine
1969 #198. The Rock (Sumi ink) $300.00; #199. Cherry Tree (Sumi ink) $300.00; #200. Red WIllow (Sumi ink) $300.00
1926 #437. Venture Inn. (Carbon pencil)
1929 #825. Theix; Brittany (Water color); #829. VIlle Close; Concarneau No. 1 (Water color)
1946 #465. Space Cone (Gouache)
1948 #124. Vartiation on a Theme (Gouache) $250.00; #126. Lyric Abstraction (Gouache) $250.00; #127. Vertical Pivot (Gouache) $250.00
1952 #287. Docks and Masts (Gouache) $200.00; #291. Space in Rocky Neck (Gouache) $200.00
1953 #219. Nets and Masts (Gouache) $250.00; #220. Port Side (Gouache) $250.00
Paintings, Drawings, and Prints by Morris Blackburn, March 11-April 17, 1966
9 Members of Academy Faculty: Paintings, drawings and sculpture by Oliver Grimley; Adolph Dioda; Karl Karhumaa; Kim Sou; Tom Ewing; Alan Goldstein; Warren Rohrer; Morris Blackburn and Julian Levi, May 19 – July 31, 1971
Morris Blackburn Memorial Exhibition, January 9-30, 1980
Morris Blackburn: Paintings, June 4-16, 1946
Regional Exhibition of Oil Painting and Sculpture Philadelphia and Vicinity, March 10 – April 8, 1951
Philadelphia Water Color Club, 38th Annual Exhibition of Work by Members, October 15 – November 20, 1955
Private Collections of Fourteen Philadelphia Artists, November 7 – December 6, 1959
Fellowship Annual Exhibition of Oil Paintings and Sculpture, Water Colors, Pastels and Prints, March 16- April 7, 1946
Fellowship Annual Exhibition, March 8 – April 8, 1956. Fish Out (engraving and etching)
Morris Blackburn - PAFA Modernist, works 1939-1949, February 15 - April 21, 2013
1928 - PAFA Cresson Traveling Scholarship
1929 - PAFA Cresson Traveling Scholarship
1946 - Gold Medal Award, Fellowship Annual Exhibition of Oil Paintings and Sculpture, Water Colors, Pastels and Prints (Still Life - Flowers)
1949 - Fellowship Prize
1951 - Harrison S. Morris Memorial Prize – Street Scene (oil), Regional Exhibition of Oil Painting and Sculpture Philadelphia and Vicinity (March 10 – April 8, 1951)
1955 - Thornton Oakley Memorial Prize – Lobster Buoys (casein), Philadelphia Water Color Club, 38th Annual Exhibition of Work by Members, October 15 – November 20, 1955
1956 - Honorable Mention, Fish Out (engraving and etching), Fellowship Annual Exhibition, March 8 – April 8, 1956)
1959 - M. V. Zimmerman Memorial Prize – Taos Mountains, Philadelphia Water Color Club, 42nd Annual Exhibition, October 16 – November 15, 1959
1969 - The Philadelphia Watercolor Club Medal of Award, 164th Annual Exhibition of Water Colors, Prints, and Drawings, January 17 – March 2, 1969
The job of the teacher is to open doors. The good student will pass through the door and add to his own body of knowledge. - Morris Blackburn
Blackburn had a long teaching career at PAFA, dedicating nearly three decades teaching students in various mediums:
Click here to view more images of Blackburn teaching students.
Model Stand Chats (transcribed and edited by Marie Maber)