Bob Bilyeu Camblin
(1928 - 2010)
Bob Camblin was born in Oklahoma to parents who were both accomplished artists. It has been said that he came into the world with “a pen in one hand and a paint brush in the other.” Camblin made art throughout high school, even serving as the yearbook Art Director. After graduation, he had a stint with the US Army before enrolling in art school at the Kansas City Art Institute. He spent time in the Air Force Reserve before returning to the Art Institute to earn his MFA. Upon graduation, he was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship and spent a year in Italy where he was heavily influenced not only by the art he saw, but by the burial catacombs located throughout the country. Skull imagery became a frequent theme throughout his artistic career. When Camlin returned to the U.S. in 1958, his artworks from the Fulbright scholarship were exhibited at the Chicago Art Institute.
Camblin moved to Houston in the mid-1960s and taught at Rice University with Earl Staley. Camblin and Staley began sharing a studio space and became occasional collaborators. Along with Joe Tate, they were known for planning art “events” or happenings where they challenged the notion of what art is, such as destroying a group of sculptures or curating an exhibition of tattoos.
In the mid-1970s, Camblin grew frustrated with his commercial success and began changing his name to see if patrons would still buy his work. He signed his paintings “Anonymous Bosch,” “anonymous box company” or “ABC” which stood for “Another Bob Camblin.” He also used monikers such as Red Stick the Pirate or Mr. Peanut. Though represented in the highly acclaimed Fresh Paint exhibition at the MFA Houston in 1985, he was the only artist who refused to submit a written statement about his work.
Camblin quit teaching in the late 70s and moved first to Oregon and then to Louisiana. He continued to make art, and his work was exhibited in prestigious museums like the Galveston Art Center, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, and the Menil Collection in Houston. His work may be found in the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the Brooklyn Museum of Art and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.
Photo of Bert Long and James Surls with Bob Camblin
1980 Photo by Frank Martin
Art on Campus
"N Earl's Backyard Thanks Amigos"
Year: 1977
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
Location: Nursing, First Floor
Gift of Betty Moody in Honor of Kim Steinhagen
This expressionistic landscape painting is both pleasing and jarring at the same time. The water in the pond and the plants surrounding it are rendered with bold brush strokes in pleasant colors of green and blue with hints of red, yellow and white. The viewer is jolted from the calm by the wide staring eyes of a skull at the far left of the painting. The title of the painting, “N Earls Backyard” gives a hint of why the skull is included. Bob Camblin and Earl Staley shared a studio and painted together frequently. Staley, who was born on Halloween and spent a considerable amount of time in Mexico, shared Camblin’s fascination with skulls. He even had a large skull-shaped planter in his backyard. Upon closer view of the skull in the painting, it does appear that some type of plant with flowers is growing out of it.
Another interesting aspect of the painting is that it is essentially a painting within a painting. The landscape imagery is rendered to look as though it is painted on a draped sheet or piece of canvas hanging from a wire visible at the top of the painting. The irregular edges of the imagery, along with a dark shadow at top right and ripples at bottom right enhance the tromp l’oeil effect.
Camblin was a voracious reader and enjoyed playing with words and names. This painting was donated to ÃÛÌÒÊÓƵ University by Houston gallerist Betty Moody who represented Camblin for many years. It is from a 1977 exhibition at Moody Gallery called “N CompleatWorks: Bob Bilyeu Camblin in collaboration with the Anonymous Box Company.” The second part of the title references one of Camblin’s alter egos, Another Bob Camblin.