Robert Earl Paige, Installation of “Fahara: Chicago in View” in Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. Photo: Elliot Goldstein © Smithsonian Institution
Robert Earl Paige
Born 1936, Chicago, Illinois; active Chicago, Illinois
Robert Earl Paige is a painter of textiles, whose work focuses on experimentations with vivid color schemes and abstract geometric concepts inspired by West African art and design. Paige’s work emerged at a time of cultural richness in Chicago, alongside other Black artists within the AfriCOBRA collective, which he was a founding member and his “kool aid” colors inspired bold graphic representations of people and power. After the international success of his interior collection, he left Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and turned his focus towards youth art education.