American painter and architect
Anna Campbell Bliss |
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| Born | (1925-07-10)July 10, 1925
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| Spouse | Robert Bliss (1947–2015) |
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Anna Campbell Bliss (July 10, 1925 – October 12, 2015) was an American
visual artist and
architect. Her trademark artwork blends color, lights, mathematics, movement, science and
technology.
[1] A modernist artist, Bliss, who was a pioneer of early computer generated art during the 1960s, was one of the first artists to utilize computer technology in her artwork.
[2][3] Examples of her work are included in the collections of the
Art Institute of Chicago, the Cliff Lodge in
Alta, the
J. Willard Marriott Library, the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, the
Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, and the
Utah Museum of Fine Arts.
[1][2] She also designed houses with her husband, architect and professor Robert Bliss, through their architectural practice, Bliss & Campbell Architects.
[1]Bliss was based in
screenprinted and
etched plates which are on display in the
lobby of the Cowles Mathematics Building at the
University of Utah.
[1] One of Bliss' major art commissions included "Discoverers," a mural recalling the
topography of Salt Lake City, which was officially unveiled in Concourse E of
Salt Lake City International Airport in 1996. During the creation of "Discoverers," tested the attitudes of socially conservative Utah by including nudes in the mural. However, as she later explained in a 2012 interview, ""I included nudes in a minor way, just to establish a relationship between the ideas and people...Because of local attitudes, I couldn't have the nudes."
[1] Instead, she added computer generated figures to the airport's mural at the suggestion of one of her assistants.
[1]Biography
Bliss was born Anna Campbell in
Campbell, who was 22-years old at the time, met her future husband, Robert Bliss, who was 26, at a dinner party in 1947. They married just three months together and remained together 68 years.[1] They traveled throughout Europe after their wedding. Robert Bliss was hired as an architecture teacher in Minnesota in 1954. The couple soon established their own architectural firm, Bliss & Campbell Architects. Together, Anna Campbell Bliss and her husband designed residential homes which incorporated their natural surroundings.[1]
Robert Bliss applied, and was hired, as the dean of the Department of Architecture at the University of Utah, now called the College of Architecture + Planning, in 1963.Utah Repertory Dance Theatre to find inspiration.
[1]
Bliss began to lose her eyesight to macular degeneration during the 2000s.[1] She regained her sight through a series of eye injections administered every six weeks for a six-month period at the Moran Eye Center at the University of Utah.[1]
Filmmaker Cid Collins Walker, a Utah-based near Washington D.C., produced and directed a 2010
documentary focusing on Bliss' life and career called "Arc of Light: A Portrait of Anna Campbell Bliss."
[2]Anna Campbell Bliss died at her home in Salt Lake City on October 12, 2015, at the age of 90. She was survived by her husband of 68 years, Robert Bliss. Her funeral was held at the Cathedral of the Madeleine.[1]
References
- ^
Salt Lake Tribune
. Retrieved 2015-11-07.
- ^
Salt Lake Tribune
. Retrieved 2015-11-07.
- ^
Art News
. Retrieved 2015-11-07.
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