Ron Adams
Printmaker Ron Adams is a former commercial printmaker and current independent artist who has taught at several universities and collaborated with artists such as John Biggers and Judy Chicago. He was born on June 25, 1934, in Detroit, Michigan to Laura and William Adams. Adams took classes at numerous art schools throughout the late 1950s and the 1960s, including Los Angeles Trade Technical College, Manual Arts Adult Night School, Los Angeles City College, UCLA and the University of Mexico. These classes gave him a broad base of experience in technical skills such as drafting, technical illustration, lithography, and engraving, as well as the more standard drawing and painting. He received a certificate of trade proficiency from Otis College of Art and Design in 1963.
Adams used his technical expertise to become a successful commercial printer. In 1968, while studying at the University of Mexico, Adams designed the poster, murals, and motif for the Olympic Stadium in Mexico City. Upon his return to the United States, Adams went to work at the prestigious Gemini G.E.L. printing workshop in Los Angeles, where he quickly moved from the position of assistant printer to that of master printer. In 1973, he left Gemini to work as a master printer for Editions Press in San Francisco. A year later, Adams moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico to found his own printing company, Hand Graphics Ltd. While there, he also worked as a guest instructor in the printmaking department of the University of Texas in El Paso in 1981, and chaired the Santa Fe Committee for Low-Cost Studio Space for Artists in 1985. Adams sold Hand Graphics Ltd. in 1987 and retired from commercial printing to focus on producing his own artwork. He has since served as artist-in-residence at Hampton University in Virginia in 1989 and at Tougaloo Art Colony in Mississippi in 2002.
Adams has been featured in exhibitions at the Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe, Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville, the Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery in Nashville, and the University of New Mexico Art Museum in Albuquerque, among others. His work was included in a travelling exhibition of prints and drawings sent to the USSR by the US State Department in 1966. Pieces by Adams appear in the collections of such noted museums as the California Afro-American Museum in Los Angeles, the National Museum of American Art in Washington, D.C., and the Bronx Museum in the Bronx, as well as in the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
A2010.081
Male
7/13/2010
Adams
Single
Northwestern High School
Sampson Elementary School
Los Angeles Trade Technical College
Otis College of Art and Design
University of California, Los Angeles
Academy of San Carlos
Yes
Any
Ron
Detroit
ADA10
Any
No
Summer
Preferred Audience: Any
Michigan
Central America
For A Long Life, Keep Your Mouth Shut And Your Bowels Open.

Georgia
6/25/1934
Atlanta
United States
Salmon, Poultry, Soul Food, Mexican Food
Printmaker and graphic designer Ron Adams (1934 - ) worked as a fine art printmaker at the Gemini G.E.L. studio, where he printed the works of artists like Robert Rauschenberg. He also created his own lithographic prints and collaborated with John T. Biggers and Charles Wilbert White.
Mission Appliance Service
Hughes Aircraft Company
Litton Industries, Inc.
Gemini G.E.L. LLC
Hand Graphics LLC
Editions Press
University of Texas at El Paso
Hampton University
Memphis College of Art
Blue
Tape: 1 Story: 1 - Slating of Ron Adams' interview
Tape: 1 Story: 2 - Ron Adams lists his favorites
Tape: 1 Story: 3 - Ron Adams remembers his mother's profession and personality
Tape: 1 Story: 4 - Ron Adams talks about his maternal grandmother, pt. 1
Tape: 1 Story: 5 - Ron Adams talks about his maternal grandmother, pt. 2
Tape: 1 Story: 6 - Ron Adams remembers his father's personality and profession
Tape: 1 Story: 7 - Ron Adams describes his paternal grandfather's family background, pt. 1
Tape: 1 Story: 8 - Ron Adams describes his paternal grandfather's family background, pt. 1
Tape: 1 Story: 9 - Ron Adams describes his earliest childhood memory
Tape: 1 Story: 10 - Ron Adams talks about his neighborhood in Detroit, Michigan, pt. 1
Tape: 2 Story: 1 - Ron Adams remembers his childhood pastimes
Tape: 2 Story: 2 - Ron Adams talks about his neighborhood in Detroit, Michigan, pt. 2
Tape: 2 Story: 3 - Ron Adams remembers his extracurricular activities
Tape: 2 Story: 4 - Ron Adams talks about his early interest in drawing
Tape: 2 Story: 5 - Ron Adams describes his experiences at Northwestern High School in Detroit, Michigan
Tape: 2 Story: 6 - Ron Adams talks about his move to California
Tape: 2 Story: 7 - Ron Adams remembers meeting his first wife
Tape: 2 Story: 8 - Ron Adams recalls how he came to be a technical illustrator
Tape: 2 Story: 9 - Ron Adams describes the technical illustration program at the Los Angeles Trade Technical College
Tape: 3 Story: 1 - Ron Adams describes his career as a technical illustrator in Los Angeles, California
Tape: 3 Story: 2 - Ron Adams describes his decision to attend the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, California
Tape: 3 Story: 3 - Ron Adams remembers his professors at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, California
Tape: 3 Story: 4 - Ron Adams recalls the cultural movements of the 1960s and 1970s
Tape: 3 Story: 5 - Ron Adams talks about his reasons for moving to Mexico City, Mexico
Tape: 3 Story: 6 - Ron Adams remembers his arrival in Mexico City, Mexico
Tape: 3 Story: 7 - Ron Adams describes the process of lithography
Tape: 3 Story: 8 - Ron Adams describes the processes of etching and engraving
Tape: 3 Story: 9 - Ron Adams recalls how he came to work at Gemini G.E.L. LLC in Los Angeles, California
Tape: 4 Story: 1 - Ron Adams describes how he became the graphic designer for the 1968 Summer Olympics
Tape: 4 Story: 2 - Ron Adams talks about the Tlatelolco massacre in Mexico City, Mexico
Tape: 4 Story: 3 - Ron Adams talks about his involvement in the protest movements of the 1960s
Tape: 4 Story: 4 - Ron Adams describes his work at Gemini G.E.L. LLC in Los Angeles, California
Tape: 4 Story: 5 - Ron Adams describes the role of a master printer
Tape: 4 Story: 6 - Ron Adams talks about the difference between fine art prints and commercial prints
Tape: 4 Story: 7 - Ron Adams talks about printer's proofs and artist's proofs
Tape: 4 Story: 8 - Ron Adams describes his decision to open a printing studio in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Tape: 4 Story: 9 - Ron Adams talks about the Hand Graphics LLC studio in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Tape: 5 Story: 1 - Ron Adams remembers working with Charles Wilbert White
Tape: 5 Story: 2 - Ron Adams talks about the process of publishing a print
Tape: 5 Story: 3 - Ron Adams recalls his guest lectures
Tape: 5 Story: 4 - Ron Adams recalls meeting his third wife
Tape: 5 Story: 5 - Ron Adams talks about his artist residencies
Tape: 5 Story: 6 - Ron Adams describes his family's impressions of his career
Tape: 5 Story: 7 - Ron Adams talks about his print, 'Blackburn'
Tape: 5 Story: 8 - Ron Adams describes his print, 'Profile in Blue'
Tape: 5 Story: 9 - Ron Adams remembers his relationship with the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia
Tape: 5 Story: 10 - Ron Adams describes his decision to move to Atlanta, Georgia
Tape: 6 Story: 1 - Ron Adams describes his hobbies
Tape: 6 Story: 2 - Ron Adams talks about the arts community in Atlanta, Georgia
Tape: 6 Story: 3 - Ron Adams reflects upon his legacy
Tape: 6 Story: 4 - Ron Adams shares his advice to aspiring artists
Tape: 6 Story: 5 - Ron Adams reflects upon his life
Tape: 7 Story: 1 - Ron Adams narrates his photographs
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