Herb Olds

A retired professor from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Herbert Olds is considered by the art world to be one of the country's finest draftsmen. The dense compositions commonly found in Olds' work feature layer upon layer of disparate imagery, juxtaposed in unexpected ways. The human figure is usually the primary focus, and it is often surrounded by a combination of animals and seemingly random everyday objects. Olds intends for the intricacy of his drawings to be studies of life itself: multifaceted, busy, contradictory and, at times, complicated. Another common element in Olds' work is Olds himself. The majority of his drawings feature self-portraits, which has allowed for his art to become a visual chronicle of his physical, personal, and artistic development throughout the years. Herb Olds was named Pittsburgh Artist of the Year in 1982. He had over 30 solo exhibitions over his career with a retrospective at the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio in 1997. His drawings have been featured in many public and private collections around the country; he won a Carnegie Museum of Art Purchase Prize in 1980. A charismatic professor, Herb Olds was the 1974 recipient of the Ryan Teaching Award and was named the first Dorothy L. Stubnitz Professor of Art in 1988.

Mark-Elliot Lugo - Herb Olds