Robert A. Nelson

Robert Nelson studied art education at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1950 and a master’s degree in 1951. He taught at his alma mater as well as the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg and the University of North Dakota before returning to school at New York University, where he received his Education Doctorate in 1971. The next year he began teaching at Cleveland State University, where he stayed until 1975, when he joined the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Nelson’s prints and mixed media works are often based on history, particularly on the American Civil War. He has had over 150 one-man shows and is represented in the collections of the Smithsonian Institute, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and Boston’s DeCordova Museum. Nelson was the 1961 recipient of the Cèzanne medal from the government of France.