Robert riggs nyu
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Robert Riggs
Robert Riggs was a painter, printmaker, and illustrator well known in the 1930s for his realistic images of the circus, boxing matches, and hospital and psychiatric wards. Riggs was born in Decatur, Illinois, and began his art studies there at Millikin University. At the age of nineteen, he won a scholarship to the Art Students League, an important New York City art school. After two years of study, he moved to Philadelphia to work for the advertising firm A. W. Ayer & Company. During World War I, Riggs served in France with a Red Cross hospital unit. He made numerous sketches of wounded soldiers, and the horrific scenes he witnessed probably informed his later attraction to grotesque and violent subjects for his prints. While in France, Riggs also studied at the Académie Julian, a private art academy long popular with Americans.
Returning to his pre-war job in Philadelphia, Riggs also did freelance magazine illustration as well as designs for advertisements. In 1924, he departed for international travel, making watercolor paintings of scenes in North Africa, China,
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Robert Riggs
An artist best known for his lithographs of prizefights and circus scenes, Riggs was one of the most successful American printmakers of 1930s and 1940s. Born in Illinois, Riggs wanted to join the circus as a child. He was educated at Decatur College (now Millikin University) and won a scholarship to study at the Art Students’ League in New York. He served with a hospital unit in World War I and then trained at the Académie Julian in Paris.
In Philadelphia, Riggs worked as a freelance artist and an illustrator for N. W. Ayer and Son, completing commissions for insurance companies and magazines such as The SaturdayEvening Post, Fortune, and Life. Riggs openly identified as gay to his friends in the Philadelphia art community, but did not disclose his orientation to his employers.
A 1931 exhibition of George Bellows’s prints of boxers inspired Riggs to learn lithography. Influenced by Philadelphia luminaries Robert Henri and Violet Oakley, Riggs synthesized his illustrative skill with the social realism of his time. He focused on the seamier side of modern li
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Many magazines tried to achieve a particular “look” with their illustrations. They’d hire artists and designers who worked in the magazine’s style, to help emphasize the magazine’s brand. But The Saturday Evening Post sought out the most talented artists, ones who had developed their own independent styles and opinions. Dealing with these artists often meant dealing with distinctive personalities; some were downright eccentric. That was OK with the Post, which had diverse needs and could use a variety of styles for its nationwide audience.
One good example is the artist Robert Riggs, whose hobbies included snakes, human scalps, prizefighting, and the circus.
Riggs was born in 1896 in Decatur, Illinois. By the time he graduated from Decatur High School he had grown into a large, red headed, plain speaking Midwesterner, destined to marry and settle down in a small town. Then World War I intervened and changed everything. In 1916 Riggs went to France with an Army medical unit after training as
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