Title: John Pearson Collection, 1976-77, 1979-80, 1983-88, 1990, 1993, 1995-2002, n.d.

ID: RG 30/312

Extent: 0.4 Linear Feet

John Pearson was born in Yorkshire and studied at the Harrogate School of Art, Yorkshire (National Diploma of Design, 1960), the Royal Academy Schools, London (Certificate, R.A.S 1963), the Akademie der Bildende Kunst, Munich (1963–64, research fellow), and Northern Illinois University (M.F.A. 1966). Before arriving to teach at Oberlin College in 1972, he taught at the University of New Mexico, the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and the Cleveland Institute of Art. He was granted U.S. citizenship in 1978. He was the Young-Hunter Professor of Studio Art at Oberlin College until his retirement in 2014.

John Pearson developed his style over the past five decades from an intense system-based program to one more attuned to the spiritual influences of the natural environment. With over 100 one-man shows (his first in London in 1963) and numerous accolades and prizes, he continues to perfect his carefully painted and constructed pieces to suggest the beauty of form. Major museums in Europe and the United States own his work, as do many private and corporate collectors. He received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Canadian Council, and has had over 100 solo exhibitions internationally, including at the Akron Art Museum, the Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Evans Carter Museum, the L.A. County Museum, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Museum of Modern Art in Rijeka, Croatia. His commissions include both sculpture and painting.

Pearson taught drawing and silkscreen at Oberlin, and served as Art Department Chair from 1982 to 1987, and Co-Chair from 2002 to 2004. In 2000 he published Silkscreen: The Poster Project, based on an exhibition at the Allen Memorial Art Museum chronicling 28 years of student silkscreen posters in his personal collection. Upon his retirement in 2014, the Allen Memorial Art Museum received an endowed fund in his name for the acquisition of abstract works of art, perpetuating Pearson’s legacy of teaching in this area. He lives in Oberlin with his wife, the artist Audra Skuodas. The couple had two children, Cadence and Jason.

Sources Consulted

Allen Memorial Art Museum Newsletter, Fall 2014, accessed from http://oberlin.edu/amam/documents/Newsletter_081314.pdf, April 12, 2017.

Christina Morgan, “The Master of Silkscreen,” The Oberlin Review, April 13, 2001.

John Pearson Faculty File, Faculty Records (RG 28), Oberlin College Archives.

The Portfolio of John Pearson, Oberlin College faculty website at http://www.oberlin.edu/faculty/jpearson/bio.htm, accessed April 12, 2017.

John Pearson entry on Artspace website at http://www.artspace.com/john_pearson, accessed April 12, 2017.

John Pearson entry on Cleveland Arts Prize website at http://clevelandartsprize.org/awardees/john_pearson.html, accessed April 12, 2017.

Author: Salsich, Anne Cuyler

Forms of Material (links to similar genres)

Languages of Materials

Administrative Information

Scope and Contents:

The John Pearson Collection is a small one, comprised of the artist’s posters, exhibition catalogs and announcement cards, and a small amount of writings by and about him. These are housed in one tall legal box and in flat files. The collection is arranged into four series, as follows:

Series 1. Biographical, 1999

Contains Pearson’s curriculum vitae of 1999.

Series 2. Writings, 1979, 1988, 2000-2001, n.d.

Contains writings by Pearson in subseries 1, and about Pearson in subseries 2. The writings by Pearson comprise two items: An undated manuscript on the history of the studio art program at Oberlin, and an article on creativity and the computer that appeared in two different journals in 1988. Writings about Pearson include two articles in Oberlin newspapers, an interview with the artist published in Dialogue, The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy, and a profile printed from the Cleveland Arts Prize website.

Series 3. Exhibition Announcement Cards, Brochures and Catalogs, 1976-77, 1979-80, 1983-88, 1990, 1993, 1995-96, 2000, 2002, n.d.

This series holds the bulk of the collection. It is divided into two subseries as described below.

Subseries 1. Exhibition Announcement Cards and Brochures, 1984, 1988, 1990, 1993, 1995, 2002, n.d.

This subseries holds ephemera related to exhibitions of John Pearson’s work, such as postcards and brochures.

Subseries 2. Exhibition Catalogs, 1976-77, 1979-80, 1983, 1985-87, 1995-96, 2000, n.d.

The exhibition catalogs yield reproductions of works and, in some cases, essays by established critics and curators.

Series 4. Posters, 1977, 1996-98

Four posters make up this series, three of which announce exhibitions of Pearson’s work. The Cleveland International Piano Competition poster features one of Pearson’s works as an illustration.

Download Box / Folder List (pdf)