Robert D. Farber University Archives and Special Collections

Selected Artwork of Robert D. Farber

About Robert D. Farber

Robert D. Farber graduated from Brandeis University in 1970 with an undergraduate degree in Studio Arts. After working for over ten years in theater and performance art, Farber began a successful career as a painter in the 1980s. Farber passed away on December 23, 1995 from complications of AIDS.

The sample of Farber’s works on this web site are from the “Western Blot Series” which consists of 23 painting-constructions created from 1991 through 1994. The series focuses on the parallels of AIDS and the Black Death of 14th-century western Europe.

Two of Farber’s paintings, “Last Pane and Night Window,” are on permanent exhibit in the University Archives.

Information from “Someday: Robert Farber, a Retrospective.”

 

Western Blot No. 9. Collage including a ruler, an angel, portions of printed texts. Words that stand out are: "sleep" and "there remained no one of their friends..."

Western Blot No. 9, 1991

Western Blot #15, 1992. Printed text on a background of a sparse landscape with a superimposed full length image of a man. The text begins: To look at me you'd never know I was HIV+...

Western Blot #15, 1992

Western Blot #5, 1991. A collage of printed texts, some with brown wash obscuring the words, a decorative piece of lattice and abstract geometric painted pieces in shades of brown and orange. One prominent text reads: "she said it's gone too far. I thought I had time. I thought I had time." Room 409. Memorial Sloan Kettering. 1990 A.D.

Western Blot #5, 1991.

Western Blot #2. 1991. A collage of printed texts, some obscured by brown wash/paint, a piece of lattice and some rectangles. One text excerpt reads: "and no bells rang, and nobody wept because almost everyone expected death. And people believed and said 'This is the end of the World.'" Another text, this one in Blackface lettering, begins: And against this pestilence no human wisdom or foresight was of any avail."

Western Blot #2. 1991

For More Information

For additional sources on Robert Farber, search the following catalog entry in the Brandeis University libraries’ on-line catalog: Subject Search: Farber, Robert, 1948-1995.