Robert J. Barnard, artist, educator and professor emeritus of the art department of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, died on his 88th birthday, Feb. 5, 2010, in Chapel Hill, N.C.
Barnard came to the United States in the late 1950s to pursue a career in art and art education. His primary medium was painting. His art, spanning a career of some 60 years, is included in public and private collections locally and in Europe, including Ackland Art Museum, Amsterdam, Rome and Oxford. His work has been shown nationally in art galleries in San Francisco, Dallas, Miami and New York. His most recent exhibitions include Lee Hansley Gallery in Raleigh and an upcoming show in Hot Springs, Ark.
Barnard designed and taught classes for training art teachers in the U.K. and U.S., serving at UNC-CH as director of programs in art education and being elected the first president of the North Carolina Art Education Association. He received research grants, was recognized for distinguished service in, and contributions to, art education and consulted in the U.S. and abroad on curriculum and art.
Barnard lectured on art training, teacher education and the importance of art in daily life. He was a spirited and imaginative professor committed to developing his students’ potential, and he mentored scores of art educators. A highlight of his career was the opportunity to tour the country to gather information for a report to the Rockefeller Foundation on the state of art education in the U.S.
Born in Northampton, England in 1922, Robert Barnard grew up in a household where creativity was the norm. His mother was a concert soprano. Among other pursuits, his father built meticulously accurate scale models, such as ocean liners and railway engines for businesses and industry. Barnard’s early grasp of events leading up to World War II led him first to join a peace movement and later to enlist in the British Army as an underage youth of 17. As a commissioned officer in the Royal Engineers, he was charged with creative and destructive tasks, such as both building bridges and blowing them up.
Barnard emerged from the military with only minor physical injuries but with lasting effects to his mind and soul that subsequently influenced his art. In 1948, he received his certificate in art from the Ministry of Education in England after studying at Bristol University and Burderop Park College.
At the forefront of his creative process was the fact that he had lived through a period of extraordinary social and technological changes. It was his endeavor to grasp, encompass and distill unique, revealing creations from those influences. Many of his personal passions – traveling, reading, motor racing and especially the complexities of contemporary music – found their way into his unique form of visual expression.
Barnard is predeceased by his mother, Elsie Lee-Andrews Barnard; his father, William Barnard; and his brother, Richard Gerald Clift Barnard. He is survived by Linda, wife of 46 years; his son, Toby; his nephew Howard and wife, Polly, of Charwelton, Northamptonshire, England; nephew Tom and wife, Natalie, of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England; cousin, Peter Andrews, and wife, Laura, of Vancouver, Canada; sister-in-law, Sue J. Luger, husband, Alan Luger, of Louisville, Ky. and their daughter, Annie; and friend Jan Onland and partner, Olga, of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.