From Texas, Robert Preusser was an Abstract Expressionist* painter, preferring mixed media*, and also was an art educator. He said that his "constant aim in painting is that of making evident an emotional expression and bringing it into a revealed tangible form through a combined intellectual and intuitive approach". (Herskovic 270)

Pruesser was born in Houston and studied there with Ola McNeill Davidson; in Chicago at the Chicago School of Design; and with Laszlo Maholy-Nagy and Robert Wolff; the Newcomb School of Art in New Orleans; and the Art Center School* in Los Angeles.

During World War II, Robert Preusser served from 1942 to 1945 in the US Army's 84th Engineer Camouflage Battalion in North Africa, Germany, Italy and France.

Teaching venues included Houston Museum Fine Arts School, University of Houston, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

Sources include:
Peter Hastings Falk, Editor, Who Was Who in American Art
Marika Herskovic, American Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s

* For more in-depth information about these terms and others, see AskART.com Glossary http://www.askart.com/AskART/lists/Art_Definition.aspx

Born: November 13, 1919, Houston, Texas

Education:

1930-39 Studied with Ola McNeill Davidson, Houston, Texas
1939-40 Institute of Design, Chicago
1940-41 Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana
1941-42 Institute of Design, Chicago
1946-47 Art Center School, Los Angeles, California

Selected One Person Exhibitions:

1948 Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
1948 Port Arthur Art Association, Port Arthur, TX
1949 Western Arts Convention, Dallas, TX
1952 Stephen F. Austin State College, Nacogdoches
1954 Rudi's Restaurant, Houston, TX
1955 Boris Mirski Gallery, Boston, MA
1957 M.I.T. Faculty Club, Cambridge, MA
1960 Houston Artists Gallery, Houston, TX
1960 Boris Mirski Gallery, Boston, MA
1961 M.I.T. Faculty Club, Cambridge, MA
1964 M.I.T. Faculty Club, Cambridge, MA
1965 The Randolph Gallery, Houston, TX
1966 Joan Peterson Gallery, Boston, MA
1974 O'Kane Gallery, Downtown College of the University of Houston
1982 Salon de Artistes, Meridian Hotel, Boston
1990 Transco Gallery, Houston, TX
1991 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA

Selected Group Exhibitions:

1935-42 Houston Artists Annuals, Houston Museum of Fine Arts
1936 Midwestern Artists Exhibit, Kansas City Art Institute
1937 Texas & Pan American Exhibit, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts
1937-39 Southeast Texas Exhibits, Houston Museum of Fine Arts
1938 National American Artists Exhibit, Fine Arts Building Galleries, New York
1940 State Fair Exhibit, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts
1940 Southwestern Artists Exhibit, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
1940 Texas General Exhibits, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio
1941 Directions in American Painting, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh
1941 Texas-Oklahoma General Exhibit, Dallas, Houston, Oklahoma City
1941 Southern States Art League Exhibit, Shreveport
1942 Fort Worth Public Library Exhibit
1942 International Watercolor Exhibit, Art Institute of Chicago
1945-53 Houston Artists Annuals, Houston Museum of Fine Arts
1945-55 Texas General Exhibits, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio
1946 Contemporary American Annuals, Whitney Museum, New York
1946 Pepsi Cola's Paintings of the Year Exhibit, New York
1946 Group Show, Fort Worth Art Association
1947 Contemporary American Annuals, Whitney Museum, New York
1947 Abstract & Surrealists American Exhibit, Art Institute of Chicago
1948 New Zealand -Texas Exchange Exhibit, New Zealand
1948 Artists West of the Mississippi Exhibit, Colorado Springs
1948 American Federation of Arts Circulating Exhibit
1949 Artists West of the Mississippi Exhibit, Colorado Springs
1949 Two-Man Exhibit, Centennial Museum, Corpus Christi
1949 Western Artists Annual Exhibit, Denver Art Museum
1950 Texas Watercolor Annual Exhibit, Witte Memorial Museum
1951 New-Comers Exhibit, The Downtown Gallery, New York
1951 American Artists Annual Exhibit, Art Institute of Chicago
1951 Rental Exhibit, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts
1951 Western Artists Annual Exhibit, Denver Art Museum
1951 Artists West of the Mississippi Exhibit, Colorado Springs
1951 Houston Annual Art League Exhibit
1951 Texas Fine Arts Exhibit, Austin
1951-56 Rental Exhibits, Houston Contemporary Arts Museum
1952 Paintings of the Southwest Exhibit, Santa Fe
1952 Recent Arrivals, The Downtown Gallery, New York
1952 Texas Contemporary Artists, M. Knoedler & Co., Houston and New York
1953 Painters Under 40, The Downtown Gallery
1951 Collectors Exhibit, The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston
1954 Western Artists Annual Exhibit, Denver Art Museum
1956-57 Caribbean Exhibit, Houston Museum of Fine Arts; Dallas Museum of Fine Arts; Munson Williams-Procter Institute, Uttica; Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center; Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh; Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston
1957-58 Survey of Texas Painting, American Federation of Arts Circulating Exhibit, Jacksonville Museum; Time, Inc., New York; Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge; Topeka Art Guild, Topeka; J.B. Speed Museum, Louisville; Atlanta Public Library; Pensacola Art Center; Fortsmith, Arkansas
1960 Boston Arts Festival, Boston
1961 Boris Mirski Gallery, Boston
1962 Boston Arts Festival, Boston
1963 Harvard & M.I.T. Visual Design Faculty Exhibit, Boston YWCA
1963 New England Art Today Exhibit, Northeastern University, Boston
1964 "Artists Who Teach," Cambridge Art Association
1964 Selections from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Sam Cantey III, The Art Department, North Texas State University
1965 "Ten New England Painter-Teachers," Pine Manor Junior College, Wellesley
1965 "Five Photographers and a Painter," Creative Photography Gallery, M.I.T.
1967 Newton College of the Sacred Heart, Newton
1968 Arts and Science Center, Nashua
1968 Houston Arts League
1969 20th Anniversary New England Exhibition, New Canaan, Connecticut
1969 "Artists on Canvas," State Bank Trust and Co., Boston
1971-72 "Texas Painting and Sculpture: The 20th Century," Pollock Galleries, Owen Arts Center, SMU, Dallas; Witte Memorial Museum; Confluence Museum, Hemisfair Plaza, San Antonio; University Museum, University of Texas, Austin; Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Fort Worth; Texas Tech University Museum, Lubbock
1972 2nd Annual Art Exhibition, River County Day School, Weston, Massachusetts

Awards and Honors:

1938 Honorable Mention for Purchase Prize - 14th Annual Houston Artists Exhibition
1939 Honorable Mention for Purchase Prize - 15th Annual Houston Artists Exhibition
1940 Purchase Prize - 16th Annual Houston Artists Exhibition
1941 San Antonio Art League Prize - 2nd Texas-Oklahoma General Exhibition
1946 State Fair of Texas Prize - 8th Texas General Exhibition
1947 Honorable Mention for Purchase Prize - 22nd Annual Houston Artists Exhibition
1948 San Antonio Art League Purchase Prize - 10th Texas General Exhibition
1949 Brown & Root Prize - 24th Annual Houston Artists Exhibition
1949 Honorable Mention - Texas Fine Arts Association General Exhibition
1950 Oppenheimer Prize - 1st Annual Texas Watercolor Exhibition
1951 Hughes Tool Prize - 26th Annual Houston Artists Exhibition
1951 Honorable Mention - 57th Annual Western Artists Exhibition
1951 First Prize - Houston Art League Prize
1952 Hughes Tool Prize - 27th Annual Houston Artists Exhibition
1952 Contemporary Arts Museum Purchase Prize - 28th Annual Houston Artists Exhibition
1956 Nominated for "Promising New Talent in U.S.A." in Art in America Review

Lectures:

1960 "Color in Architecture," Producers Council, Boston Chapter
1961 "Art Education at M.I.T.," Art Institute of Chicago
1962 "Lighting in Church Architecture," New England Conference on Church Architecture, Melrose
1962 Panel Participant, Architects and Consulting Engineers' Lighting Conference, General Electric Lighting Institute, Nela Park, Cleveland
1963 "Visual Education for Scientists and Engineers," M.I.T. Alumni Day
1964 "New Approaches in Art Education," Witte Memorial Museum, San Antonio
1964 "Creative Arts in Education," University of Texas, Austin
1965 Panel participant, "The Arts in Education," 4th General Session, 16th Annual Convention of New York State Art Teachers Association, New York
1966 "Interaction of Media, Tool and Process," Industrial Designers Society of America, Boston Chapter
1966 "Motivating Engineering Students Toward Artistic Perception," Engineering Leadership Series, School of Architecture, Oklahoma State University
1967 "Science, Technology and Art," Houston Art League
1967 "Visual Education in a Scientific Institution, Honors Colloquium," Creativity in Modern Society, University of Rhode Island, Kingston
1967 "New Dimensions in the Visual Arts," School of Architecture and Fine Arts, University of Southern California, Los Angeles
1967 "Art and Science: A Rapprochement?," Third Independent Schools Visual Arts Festival, Mount Hermon School
1967 "Science Engineering and Creativity in Art," Keynote address, Canadian Society for Education Through Art, Montreal
1968 "Visual Design Experiments at M.I.T.," Barn Gallery Associates, Ogunquit
1968 "Technology Invades the Arts," I.B.M. Systems
1969 "Relating Art and Technology," University of Surrey, Guilford, England
1969 "Science, Engineering and Creativity in Art," Institute for Educational Technology Colloquium, University of Surrey, Guilford, England
1969 "Visual Arts and the University," Gardner Centre for the Arts, University of Sussex, Brighton, England
1969 "Historical Perspective on Technology and the Visual Arts," Halbourn Institute, sponsored by School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Bath University of Technology, Bath, England
1969 "Visual Form and Technology," Brighton College of Art, sponsored by Southeastern Society of Architects, Brighton, England
1971 "Visual Design Experiments by Science and Engineering Students," Department of Industrial Design, Pratt Institute
1972 "New Directions in the Teaching of Visual Design," Design Center, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa
1973 "Art, Technology and the Visual Environment," Special Summer Session: Technological Innovations within the Urban Context, M.I.T.
1974 Panel participant, "Art and the University - The Visual Arts at M.I.T., Symposium sponsored by the Center for Advanced Visual Studies and School of Architecture and Planning, M.I.T.
1976 Symposium participant, Conference on the Contribution of Persons other than Teachers to Educational Activities in the Perspective of Life-Long Education, sponsored by Division of Structures and Content of Life-Long Education, UNESCO, Paris, France
1979 "Visual Form: Experiments Using Science and Technology," Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, Louisiana

Teaching:

1941-42 Institute of Design, Chicago
1946 Port Arthur Art Association (Summer)
1947-54 Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
1949-51 Houston Jewish Community Center (Summer)
1951-54 University of Houston, Art Department
1953 Houston Jewish Community Center (Summer)
1954-57 Visiting Lecturer, Architecture Department, M.I.T.
1955 Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (Summer)
1955-56 Instructor, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, Cambridge
1957- Assistant Professor of Visual Design, Architecture Department, M.I.T.
1965 University of California, San Diego
1967 Center for the Understanding Form in Visual Art, Attleboro High School, Attleboro, Massachusetts
1969-70 Institute for Educational Technology, University of Surrey, Guiford, England
1974-85 Director of Education, M.I.T. Center for Advanced Visual Studies
1979 Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, Louisiana


Public Collections:

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston
Witte Memorial Museum, San Antonio
Texas Christian University, Fort Worth
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Represented in over 100 private collections