Robert Wilbert, "Night Snow"
November 13, 2018
Robert Wilbert, Night Snow, 1960. Watercolor.
Robert Wilbert was a professor in the James Person Duffy Department of Art and Art History for thirty-eight years, a time he also served as coordinator of painting. He is a well-recognized painter nationally and statewide, having been honored with numerous awards and commissions. Among these were the National Endowment for the Arts in 1977, and the Michigan Foundation for the Arts’ Michigan Award which he received in 1981. As a renowned Michigan-based artist, Robert was also granted the opportunity to design the 1987 Michigan postage stamp in honor of the state’s sesquicentennial. The list of his artistic accomplishment goes on, but one of his most significant attributes was his humble and generous character. He is remembered as a teacher, mentor, and friend, and was an influence to many of the artists who made up Detroit’s art scene, including the Cass Corridor movement. His involvement in the art community and in teaching was so ardent that his individual mark is forever left on Detroit and Wayne State.
Wilbert’s 1960 watercolor, Night Snow, is a heartwarming example of the representational paintings he would create. Although depictive of a simple scene of snow covering bushes and the ground, his gestural brushstrokes allow the colors to dance around each other to create shadows and illuminate objects, having a pleasant take on the coats of snow that engulf the landscape. Although also an oil painter, his use of watercolor was signature, and in this painting, the medium really captures the essence of a Michigan night snow caught in perhaps the early morning. Night Snow was gifted to the Wayne State University Art Collection by Don and Chris Diehl.
Written by Danielle Bidigare