Exhibitor Spotlight: Robert L. Bliss
Introduction to the interview with Robert L. Bliss:
As an architect and an artist, Robert Bliss is well known and highly respected in the architectural, design and artistic community both locally and the world over. His wife, Anna Campbell Bliss, is equally as recognized and respected via her mathematically and architecturally inspired works of art. Robert began undergraduate studies at Black Mountain College in North Carolina and in 1949 he completed a Bachelors in Architecture at M.I.T. in Boston.
It was during these formative years that he met Anna. They were soon married and, after each receiving a traveling fellowship grant, spent the first year of their marriage bicycling around France and Italy. Using Florence and Rome as a base, the two would study the chapels and church buildings of Europe and remit their experience to their grant sponsors.
In 1951 they returned to work in the United States and in 1955 started an architecture firm together, Bliss and Campbell Architects. For 11 years Robert worked as Assistant and then Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota while their firm took contracts. In 1963 Robert was recruited to Chairman of the University of Utah’s School of Architecture and so he and Anna settled their lives together in Salt Lake City.
The couple found in Salt Lake City fertile ground to be involved in the architectural, artistic and design community. Only three years after their arrival Bliss helped to found the Utah Heritage Foundation, Utah’s first statewide organization dedicated to historical preservation. During his 50-year career in Salt Lake City, Robert became one of the most involved and influential members in the architectural and artistic community. He retired from the University of Utah in 1990, retaining the title of Professor Emeritus and continuing to teach architecture and furniture design courses at the University.
Robert and Anna lived and worked together for 68 years until Anna’s death in 2015 at their home near the University with Robert by her side. At 97 years, Robert continues to be involved in the artistic community while sponsoring and attending exhibitions. The Utah Design Exhibit is honored to have Robert as an exhibitor in our show.
The following are highlights from an interview with Robert at his home on August 28, 2018, conducted by Utah Design Exhibit Director, Chris Proctor.
Foreword by Chris Proctor:
“Being rather new to the architecture and design community, Robert Bliss is a new name to me. Whenever I’ve heard his name mentioned it is done without exception with a sense of reverence, even intimidation. My conversations with others about him have left me with the impression that he is viewed as an exalted figure in his field. I’ve spoken with people who seemed to think it quite the occasion that I was able to score an interview with him. I’ve found him to be nothing but warm and accepting. I feel at a tremendous loss to have been introduced to this man so late in his years, though I’m grateful to have struck up a relationship with him now. I hope that my interview with him was well prepared and insightful to those that know him, and I hope that it does the man justice."
What did you want to get out of building and designing furniture?
What makes you want? It’s a need (chuckles). My wife needed a table so I made a table. Once I started with furniture it just started multiplying and start making changes and changing materials and techniques and finishes. Then you usually very quickly get reactions and seeing whether or not the work captures the juror or the sitter, and that’s about it.
When someone critiques your furniture do you weigh that more or less than your own self-critique?
Oh, you’d always listen or watch to see reactions and usually its pretty obvious whether someone is uncomfortable sitting in a chair or not.
Was there ever a time when you were focusing solely on furniture building?
There was a period I had a spurt of making. It was the Deep Cradle Rocker or the Slab chair or Fan chair. You get an idea and you want to test it so you make it.
Would you spend a lot of time drawing and planning these things or would you get right on to building?
Doing it is an experimental process when you start something. Try it, it doesn’t work and you alter your direction. You change material or change your mechanical connectors.
What are some of the best times you’ve had or the most fun you’ve had designing and building?
The most fun is doing more of it and seeing what happens. Sometimes throwing stuff away, many times you stand it up in a corner. It’s a little hard to know what the inventive mind is doing when it’s faced with a need. I keep thinking how what a directive process when building a house or designing a house or designing a piece of furniture you suddenly have a desire to see something, to visualize something, to see something and to make attempts to realize it. I think that’s so much to do with the whole process of art.
What brought you the most joy and fulfillment in your own life?
My wife.
Do you feel like talking about her at all?
I’d be glad to talk about her, yeah. Yes, we got married and spent a year traveling in Europe and got back to Boston and there was an opening here for teaching and we needed money and so I accepted. (Chuckles) You need money you go to the place. (Chuckles) And it turned out to be an interesting choice.
Have you ever been to Salt Lake before that point?
No. I got the job inquiry in Minneapolis and it came just at the right time because we essentially had no money after running around the world and it turned out to be a really good opportunity. I don’t know if that’s going with the flow or it’s going whether… maybe emotional and financial urgency.
What would you and Anna do when you first met?
Taking opportunities. I was awarded a traveling fellowship and that gave us enough money to get bicycles and start pedaling. We were often a source of hilarity from the Italian bicycle racers as we were pedaling along with luggage and baggage in our baskets. They’re going, zip, zip, zip!, turning around and laughing at us.
How far did you ride?
Twenty or maybe more miles each time. We got to the next town with the hotel and would lay over and rest up and get any repairs made and at each major city or significant area of art we would stay and interview and photograph. Because of the fellowship we were obligated to keep the community in Boston informed about what we thought about everything. The community in Boston was very well traveled and so they knew a lot about everything and they wanted us to tell them about our reactions to what we were seeing and learning and reading about in each section of the country. Trying to learn something, to enjoy something and to really see it and be able to explore the church in detail and photograph it and add to your collection of stuff.
Was there anything that you felt left an impression on you?
(Chuckles) Well, if you walk in to Chartres and look up you get hammered. (Chuckles). So it left an impression. You just stay there and just stayed for several days and wandered around the cathedral and the city and sketched or took photos and added to your collection of, more than memories but collection of material that you can refer back to, your writing synopsis of what it was like being a bicycle architect.
Was it mainly France and Italy?
France and Italy. First in France and then lived for a while and got on the bikes and went down to Italy and found an apartment in Florence and used that as a base. Florence and maybe more-so Rome at the American Academy there. That was where my wife was given a wonderful studio on the roof with beautiful star nights and… she was really happy there. After a year we had exhausted any source of money and had to come home and get jobs both.
The job in Salt Lake was what came up?
It came up at the time when we didn’t have any major projects that would support us and so we accepted it and it turned out to be quite interesting.
What did you enjoy about Salt Lake?
It was a lot warmer (Chuckles). It was a new situation and a new faculty to work with and we got us as involved as possible in oh, the museums and fine arts and getting acquainted with people. That’s about it.
Thank you for taking the time to share all that with me.
It’s awfully good for me to be reminded of a lot that develops from the kind of questions that you’ve asked. Anna really developed when we got back and found our own studio at 380 west 400 north, which is still there and still full of her work. I was busy at school and she really heavily concentrated on making everything she could and then she got hit with disease and it just knocked her out and um, that’s the way it went.
What would you spend your time doing after that happened?
Doing? Yeah. Did I continue teaching? I think I must’ve. Oh I don’t know you do what you do when you lose your wife. It’s a stunning occasion that you don’t get over very quickly.
Can I refill your water?
No, it’s Boutari. (Chuckles)
Is there anything you’d like to talk about that I haven’t mentioned?
Oh… no. I think your show would be a wonderful thing to happen in the city. I think craftsmanship with your hands and fingers is rewarding emotionally, maybe not financially. Those who do it do it for individual preservation. You try and in between successes you find ways to validate your existence.