Tom Blackwell

{{other people|Thomas or Tom Blackwell|Thomas Blackwell (disambiguation)}} {{Short description|American hyperrealist (1938–2020)}} '''Thomas Leo Blackwell''' (1938 – April 8, 2020)<ref name=":0" /> was an American hyperrealist of the original first generation of Photorealists, represented by Louis K. Meisel Gallery. Blackwell is one of the Photorealists most associated with the style. He produced a significant body of work based on the motorcycle, as well as other vehicles including airplanes.<ref>''Photo-realism'' by Louis K. Meisel. Harry N. Abrams, New York, NY (1980).</ref> In the 1980s, he also began to produce a body of work focused on storefront windows, replete with reflections and mannequins.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Meisel|first=Louis|title=Photorealism in the Digital Age|publisher=Abrams|year=2013|isbn=978-1-4197-0828-2|location=New York|pages=19}}</ref> By 2012, Blackwell had produced 153 Photorealist works.<ref name=":1" />

Blackwell was born in Chicago, Illinois. He started out his career as an abstract-expressionist, but was moved to try his hand at the Pop art movement of the 1960s.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Smart|first=Paul|date=April 16, 2020|title=Renowned Photorealist Painter Tom Blackwell Dies from Complications of Covid-19|work=Hudson Valley One|url=https://hudsonvalleyone.com/2020/04/16/renowned-photorealist-painter-tom-blackwell-dies-from-complications-of-covid-19/|access-date=June 5, 2020}}</ref> It was with his Post-Pop paintings that Blackwell garnered early success; in 1969, his painting "Gook", which was a reaction to the horrors of the Vietnam War, was included in "Human Concern Personal Torment" at the Whitney Museum of American Art.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=April 14, 2020|title=Tom Blackwell, pioneering Photorealist painter, dies at 82|url=https://artdaily.cc/news/122672/Tom-Blackwell--pioneering-Photorealist-painter--dies-at-82#.XtrtIBNKjBI|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=June 5, 2020|website=ArtDaily}}</ref> As the artist recounted for the Currier Museum in 2015, "[i]n the late 1960s, I was still finding my voice as an artist. At that point, I was doing Post-Pop paintings, combining imagery from photo-derived sources. One of these included a section of chrome tailpipes, and as I worked on this painting I realized that the rest of the imagery felt extraneous."<ref>{{Cite web|last=Blackwell|first=Tom|date=January 24, 2015|title=Tom Blackwell's Photorealism: Making a Masterpiece|url=https://currier.org/tom-blackwells-photorealism/|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=June 5, 2020|website=Currier Museum of Art}}</ref>

By the 1970s, Blackwell had abandoned his earlier Pop sensibilities and was painting in the newly emerging Photorealist style.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Meisel|first=Louis|title=Photorealism|publisher=Harry N. Abrams|year=1980|isbn=0-8109-1464-6|location=New York|pages=83}}</ref> His early large-scale paintings of motorcycles and engines, highlighted reflective chrome surfaces.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Meisel|first=Louis|title=Photorealism|publisher=Harry N. Abrams|year=1980|isbn=0-8109-1464-6|location=New York|pages=84}}</ref> His later works continued to build upon this series, and expanded to include a series of storefront windows scenes, which capture layered imagery reflecting from the glass.<ref>[http://www.askart.com/askart/b/tom_blackwell/tom_blackwell.aspx Tom Blackwell - Artist, Art - Tom Leo Blackwell]</ref>

Blackwell's paintings are in many prestigious museum collections, including the Art Museum of Southeast Texas, the Museum of Modern Art,<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Art and Artists|url=https://www.moma.org/artists/587|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=June 5, 2020|website=Museum of Modern Art}}</ref> the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,<ref>{{Cite web|last=Buoys|first=Gabriel|date=February 6, 2012|title=Visitors Look at "Little Roy's Gold Wing"|url=https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/visitors-look-at-little-roys-gold-wing-by-us-artist-tom-news-photo/138339323|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=June 5, 2020|website=Getty Images}}</ref> and the Parrish Art Museum,<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=November 11, 2018|title=Picture (Recent Acquisitions)|url=https://parrishart.org/exhibitions/picture/|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=June 5, 2020|website=Parrish Art Museum}}</ref> amongst others.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=January 15, 2020|title=Tom Blackwell - Biography|url=https://www.meiselgallery.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Blackwell-Tom-web.pdf|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=June 5, 2020|website=Louis K. Meisel Gallery}}</ref>

Blackwell died on April 8, 2020, as a result of complications from COVID-19. He was 82 years old.<ref name=":0">{{cite web |last1=Martelli |first1=A. J. |title=Coronavirus claims life of Tom Blackwell, Rhinebeck artist |url=https://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/news/2020/04/11/coronavirus-tom-blackwell-influential-rhinebeck-artist-dies/2976795001/ |website=Poughkeepsie Journal}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blackwell, Tom}} Category:1938 births Category:2020 deaths Category:Photorealist artists Category:Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in New York (state)