About
About Aminah Robinson
Robinson is an instrument of memory, gathering stories, totems and fragments of the past to bring into the present and pass on to the future. Her art grows from her belief in the African concept of Sankofa, an understanding of the past so that we can learn from its richness, joys and mistakes. The materials for her drawings, paintings, sculptures and artist books are the materials of memory, often her own but also of others: buttons and cloth like those used by her mother; an amalgam her father called “Hogmawg” composed of animal grease, mud, glue, twigs, clay and other bits of everyday life; and discarded scraps from the lives of friends, neighbors and family. As these materials pass through Aminah Robinson’s hands, they recombine into an art of extraordinary power.
 

Born Brenda Lynn Robinson in 1940, she grew up in a close-knit community in Columbus, Ohio, where family and neighbors shared life and stories. Among the most influential storytellers in Robinson’s childhood was her elderly great-aunt Cordelia who had been born into slavery in Georgia. Cordelia knew the brutal lore of the Middle Passage from Africa and the experience of life as a slave. These stories were a continual influence on her work.

 

Aminah Robinson’s parents encouraged their daughter’s noticeable artistic talent. She attended Columbus Art School (now Columbus College of Art and Design) on Saturdays while still in high school, and after high school she continued her studies there. In 1958, while still attending Columbus Art School, Aminah Robinson worked at the city’s public library, where she took the opportunity to read the history of Columbus’ African American neighborhoods. These readings not only enriched her growing cache of stories, they prepared her for the struggles in the growing movement for African American civil rights. In 1963, Aminah Robinson joined with over two-hundred and fifty thousand other marchers for the historic March on Washington where Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech became permanently etched into the American consciousness.

 

After marriage, the birth of her son, the subsequent dissolution of marriage and jobs as an illustrator in Idaho and Mississippi, Aminah Robinson returned to Columbus in 1971 to seriously pursue her art. To make ends meet, she worked as an art instructor for the Beatty Recreation Center. But critical notice of her work began to come her way, and in 1979 the Ohio Arts Council awarded her a grant that enabled her to travel to Africa to observe the continent’s cultures and study the sites of the slave trade. It was during this trip when Brenda Lynn Robinson became Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson; the crowning name, meaning faithful, bestowed on her by a religious leader in Egypt.
 
Aminah Robinson returned to Columbus and her job at the recreation center, where she remained until 1990. By then, her artwork was providing enough income to pursue an artist’s life full time.

 

Among the grants that enabled this transition was an award from the Ohio Arts Council to fund a residency at the Museum of Modern Art’s P.S. 1, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, both in 1989. Exhibitions in galleries and museums followed, as did extended travel to New York City, Israel, Chile, Sapelo Island, Georgia, where her ancestors had been slaves, and again through Africa. Each trip resulted in a series of artworks based on Robinson’s observations, emotions and each culture’s lore of stories.

 

Aminah Robinson is now esteemed as a vital contributor to American art. Her work is actively collected and is represented in the Columbus Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Newark Museum, among others. In 2002, Robinson was awarded an honorary Doctorate from Ohio Dominion University. In 2003, she was commissioned to create a monumental work for the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati, which she completed in 2004. Also in 2004, Robinson was honored with a MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant, one of the highest honors awarded to the creative professions. In 2006, the Columbus Museum of Art organized a major retrospective, Symphonic Poem: The Art of Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson. The exhibition traveled to the Brooklyn Museum, the Tacoma Art Museum and other venues across the country, and was accompanied by a 204 page book published by Abrams.

 

Reference: Symphonic Poems: The Art of Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson. Abrams, Harry N., Inc., 2003

Artworks
  • Aminah Robinson, Chronicles from the Village Series: African Village, Delaware County, Columbus, Ohio 1700-1800, 2010-2012
    Aminah Robinson
    Chronicles from the Village Series: African Village, Delaware County, Columbus, Ohio 1700-1800, 2010-2012
    Mixed media on paper
    17 1/2 x 63 1/2 in.
    44.5 x 161.3 cm
  • Aminah Robinson, Chronicles from the Village Series: Marcus Garvey Parade, 2010-2012
    Aminah Robinson
    Chronicles from the Village Series: Marcus Garvey Parade, 2010-2012
    Mixed media on paper
    18 x 43 1/2 in.
    45.7 x 110.5 cm
  • Aminah Robinson, In the Beginning..., 2000-2007
    Aminah Robinson
    In the Beginning..., 2000-2007
    Rag Painting
    18 x 109 in.
    45.7 x 276.9 cm
  • Aminah Robinson, Ethiopian Nun, 2000
    Aminah Robinson
    Ethiopian Nun, 2000
    Mixed media
    43 x 38 in.
    109.2 x 96.5 cm
  • Aminah Robinson, People of the Book: Bedouin Woman, 1999
    Aminah Robinson
    People of the Book: Bedouin Woman, 1999
    Oil, watercolor and fabric on paper
    49 1/4 x 42 in.
    125.1 x 106.68 cm
  • Aminah Robinson, People of the Book: Ethiopian Woman, 1999
    Aminah Robinson
    People of the Book: Ethiopian Woman, 1999
    Watercolor and gouache on heavy stock with fabric
    43 1/4 x 32 1/2 in.
    109.86 x 82.55 cm
  • Aminah Robinson, People of the Book: Yemenite Girl, Jerusalem, 1999
    Aminah Robinson
    People of the Book: Yemenite Girl, Jerusalem, 1999
    Oil, watercolor and fabric on paper
    72 x 49 in.
    182.88 x 124.46 cm
  • Aminah Robinson, Figure Studies for a Symphonic Poem 3, 1997
    Aminah Robinson
    Figure Studies for a Symphonic Poem 3, 1997
    Oil and watercolor on paper
    30 x 22 1/4 in.
    76.2 x 56.52 cm
  • Aminah Robinson, Figure Studies for a Symphonic Poem 4, 1997
    Aminah Robinson
    Figure Studies for a Symphonic Poem 4, 1997
    Oil and watercolor on paper
    30 x 22 1/4 in.
    76.2 x 56.52 cm
  • Aminah Robinson, Edmonia Lewis/Sculptor - A Clutch of Blossom Series, 1990
    Aminah Robinson
    Edmonia Lewis/Sculptor - A Clutch of Blossom Series, 1990
    Mixed media on pellon
    59 3/4 x 21 1/2 in.
    151.77 x 54.61 cm
  • Aminah Robinson, Mary E. Birchfield- A Clutch of Blossom Series, 1990
    Aminah Robinson
    Mary E. Birchfield- A Clutch of Blossom Series, 1990
    Pastel paint on rice paper
    62 1/2 x 23 1/2 in.
    158.75 x 59.69 cm
  • Aminah Robinson, Unwritten Love Letter Series - Rosa Parks, 1990
    Aminah Robinson
    Unwritten Love Letter Series - Rosa Parks, 1990
    Mixed media on paper
    9 x 15 in.
    22.86 x 38.1 cm
  • Aminah Robinson, Unwritten Love Letter Series - Septima Poinsette Clark, 1990
    Aminah Robinson
    Unwritten Love Letter Series - Septima Poinsette Clark, 1990
    Mixed Media on Paper
    9 x 15 in.
    22.86 x 38.1 cm
  • Aminah Robinson, Walking Up 125th St., 1989-1995
    Aminah Robinson
    Walking Up 125th St., 1989-1995
    mixed media on fabric
    40 x 168 in.
    101.6 x 426.7 cm
  • Aminah Robinson, Unwritten Love Letter Series #138 - Zora Neale Hurston, 1989
    Aminah Robinson
    Unwritten Love Letter Series #138 - Zora Neale Hurston, 1989
    Mixed media on paper
    9 x 15 in.
    22.86 x 38.1 cm
  • Aminah Robinson, Timelessness of Life Series: Paperboy Sells Call and Post Newspaper, 1982
    Aminah Robinson
    Timelessness of Life Series: Paperboy Sells Call and Post Newspaper, 1982
    Mixed media on paper
    13 1/2 x 14 1/4 in.
    34.3 x 36.2 cm
  • Aminah Robinson, Street of Dakar, 1979
    Aminah Robinson
    Street of Dakar, 1979
    Pen, ink and pastel on handmade paper
    13 x 11 in.
    33.02 x 27.94 cm
  • Aminah Robinson, Pages in History: Rev Ezekiel Fields
    Aminah Robinson
    Pages in History: Rev Ezekiel Fields
    Ink and watercolor
    12 3/4 x 11 3/4 in.
    32.4 x 29.8 cm
  • Aminah Robinson, Study for 'Bridges of Passion'
    Aminah Robinson
    Study for 'Bridges of Passion'
    Gouache on patterned paper
    25 x 22 in.
    63.5 x 55.9 cm
  • Aminah Robinson, Untitled RagGonNon
    Aminah Robinson
    Untitled RagGonNon
    Fabric
    24 x 105 in.
    61.0 x 266.7 cm
  • Aminah Robinson, Untitled: Figure I
    Aminah Robinson
    Untitled: Figure I
    Pen, ink, and pastel on parchment
    19 1/2 x 19 in.
    49.5 x 48.3 cm
  • Aminah Robinson, Untitled: Figure II
    Aminah Robinson
    Untitled: Figure II
    Pen, ink, and pastel on parchment
    18 x 19 in.
    45.7 x 48.3 cm
  • Aminah Robinson, Untitled: Figure with Bird
    Aminah Robinson
    Untitled: Figure with Bird
    Pen, ink, and pastel on parchment
    15 x 11 in.
    38.1 x 27.9 cm
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