Robert Blackburn participated in the rich mix of art programs and creative groups available in Harlem as he was growing up, including Charles Alston's Harlem Arts Workshop, the Harlem YMCA, and later the Harlem Artist's Guild. In 1937 he joined the WPA at the Harlem Community Art Center, the largest New York center for instruction in the arts. There he was exposed to Harlem's most prominent artists, among them Aaron Douglas, William Henry Johnson, and Jacob Lawrence. He studied with Will Barnet and Vaclav Vytlacil at the Art Students League, which he attended in the early 1940s on scholarship.
In 1949 he founded the Printmaking Workshop, an artist's cooperative modeled on Stanley William Hayter's Atelier 17. Blackburn's ongoing commitment to the workshop and his innovative approach to the art of lithography was critical in shaping the development of the medium. In his capacity as master printmaker, Blackburn collaborated with many major American artists, including Romare Bearden, Robert Motherwell, Jasper Johns, and Helen Frankenthaler.
From an early age, Blackburn was the recipient of many awards and fellowships, including the Frederick Douglas Guidance and Art Medals, John Wanamaker Medal, Spingarn Award, Robert Pious Award, Poussant Award, G.T. Pinckney Award, and the John Hay Whitney Traveling Fellowship. The artist's work is represented in numerous major American art museums and collections, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum, Museum of Modern Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Library of Congress.
