Robert Lepper (1906-1991) was an American artist and art professor at

Carnegie Institute of Technology Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

, now

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

, who developed the country's first

industrial design Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical Product (business), products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in advan ...

degree program. Lepper's work in industrial design, his fascination with the impact of technology on society and its potential role for artmaking formed the background for his class "Individual and Social Analysis", a two semester class focusing on community and personal memory as factors in artistic expression, which with his theoretical dialogues with his most promising students outside the classroom fostered the intellectual environment from which such diverse artists as Andy Warhol, Philip Pearlstein, Mel Bochner, and Jonathan Borofsky would later build their art practices.

Early life and education

Robert Lepper was born September 10, 1906, in

Aspinwall, Pennsylvania Aspinwall is a borough on the Allegheny River in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and is part of the Pittsburgh Metro Area. In 1900, 1,231 people lived in Aspinwall, and that number rose to 2,592 in 1910, and 3,170 by 1920. The popu ...

.Social Security Administration. Social Security Death Index, Master File. Social Security Administration. His parents were Elizabeth L. and Charles W. Lepper, a purchasing agent for a gas company. Charles' parents were both born in Germany. Robert had an older brother, Charles.Aspinwall, Allegheny, Pennsylvania; Roll: 1959; Page: 18B; Enumeration District: 0490; Image: 832.0; FHL microfilm: 2341693. United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930. He attended

(CIT), graduating in 1927. From graduation until 1928, he went to Europe and explored contemporary art.Robert Lepper biography.
IDSA. Retrieved January 17, 2014. He then was an artist for the ''

Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph The ''Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph'' was an evening daily newspaper published in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 1927 to 1960. Part of the Hearst newspaper chain, it competed with ''The Pittsburgh Press'' and the ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'' until bein ...

''Robert L. Lepper Papers.
Carnegie Mellon University Archives, Staff and Faculty Papers. Retrieved January 17, 2014. and lived with his parents.

Career

Carnegie Institute of Technology

Lepper taught art from beginning in 1930 and helped to establish the one of the country's first industrial design degree program at

in 1934. He defined visual perception elements: area, line, space, volume, color, value and texture - and then the equivalents in industrial design, published in the 1938 "The Elements of Visual Perception, linking art elements to manufacturing processes" article. He taught a class entitled "Individual and Social Analysis," in which he encouraged students to look at ordinary items from their daily lives as potential works of art. One of his students was

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...

, then Andrew Warhola, who drew upon his meals at home and made ''

Campbell's Soup Cans ''Campbell's Soup Cans'' (sometimes referred to as ''32 Campbell's Soup Cans'') is a Visual arts, work of art produced between November 1961 and March or April 1962 by American artist Andy Warhol. It consists of thirty-two canvases, each mea ...

.'' Other notable students include Warhol's friend

Philip Pearlstein Philip Martin Pearlstein (May 24, 1924 – December 17, 2022) was an American painter best known for Modernist Realist nudes. Cited by critics as the preeminent figure painter of the 1960s to 2000s, he led a revival in realist art. Biography ...

, illustrator Leonard Kessler, editorial cartoonist Jimmy Margulies, conceptual artist

Mel Bochner Mel Bochner (born 1940) is an American conceptual artist. Bochner received his BFA in 1962 and honorary Doctor of Fine Arts in 2005 from the School of Art at Carnegie Mellon University. He lives in New York City. Life Bochner was born in Pittsb ...

"Newsbriefs: Lepper show runs at Warhol."
Carnegie Mellon Magazine. Winter 2002. Retrieved January 17, 2014. and

Joyce Kozloff Joyce Kozloff (born 1942) is an American artist whose politically engaged work has been based on cartography since the early 1990s. Kozloff was one of the original members of the Pattern and Decoration movement and was an early artist in the 1970 ...

, who developed an interest in public art when working on Lepper's Oakland Project in which students went out into the Oakland neighborhood and made paintings or drawings of the infrastructure, buildings and people. The project was written about in Richard Rappaport's 1989 paper ''Robert Lepper, Carnegie Tech, and the Oakland Project.'' The Oakland Project was the first semester of the Individual and Social Analysis course he started in 1947; The Retrospective was the second semester class for the program.

Artist

Lepper created sculptures and murals, many of which reflect his interest in industrial objects. He developed the combination of powdered pigments and acrylic resin, or plastic, for artwork. In 1932, he made ''Crankshaft.'' He made several murals under the

Federal Arts Project The Federal Art Project (1935–1943) was a New Deal program to fund the visual arts in the United States. Under national director Holger Cahill, it was one of five Federal Project Number One projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administratio ...

(1935-1943) of the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

, including post offices in

Grayling, Michigan Grayling ( ') is a city and the county seat of Crawford County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the only incorporated community in Crawford County. The population was 1,884 at the 2010 census. The city is surrounded by Grayling Charter Town ...

, and

Caldwell, Ohio Caldwell is a village and the county seat of Noble County, Ohio, United States. It is located along the West Fork of Duck Creek 23 miles north of Marietta. The population was 1,748 at the 2010 census. History Caldwell was founded in 1857, and ...

. He made the "highly acclaimed" mural of area industries for the Mining Industries Building (also known as the new Mineral Industries Building) at

West Virginia University West Virginia University (WVU) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Beckley, Potomac State College ...

between 1940 and 1942. The main entrance of the Graduate School of Industrial Administration (GSIA) at

has a sandblasted, bas-relief industrial mural made by Lepper in 1952. Robert Lepper made a number of public works: sculpture for the

1964 New York World's Fair The 1964–1965 New York World's Fair was a world's fair that held over 140 pavilions and 110 restaurants, representing 80 nations (hosted by 37), 24 US states, and over 45 corporations with the goal and the final result of building exhibits or ...

. In the latter part of the 1960s he worked on his Transit Vehicle Design project to create more comfortable, angled passenger seats.

Awards

* 1961 - Craftsmanship Award, Pennsylvania Society of Architects of the American Institute of Architects * 1975 - Respect and Admiration Award, Carnegie Mellon University * 1989 -

Industrial Designers Society of America The Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) is a membership-based not-for-profit organization that promotes the practice and education of industrial design. The organization was formally established in 1965 by the collaborative merger of t ...

's (IDSA) Education Award, in recognition of his "significant and distinguished contributions" in industrial design education.

Personal life

Lepper married Helen Jewett of

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

on September 6, 1933, in

Damariscotta, Maine Damariscotta (/ dæmrɪˈskɒtə/ ) is a town in Lincoln County, Maine, United States. The population was 2,297 at the 2020 census. Damariscotta is the oyster capital of New England. A popular tourist destination, the towns of Damariscotta and N ...

, where she was born. They lived in Pittsburgh and had a daughter, Susan, born about 1935. He died February 7, 1991, when he was living in Pittsburgh.

Posthumous recognition

In 2002,

The Andy Warhol Museum The Andy Warhol Museum is located on the North Shore of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is the largest museum in North America dedicated to a single artist. The museum holds an extensive permanent collection of art and archive ...

held the "Robert Lepper, Artist & Teacher" exhibit, which exhibited works from Lepper's estate and Carnegie Mellon. Some were shown for the first time. ''River Creature'' is a model of a 60-foot-tall, fire-breathing dragon proposed work of art, to "humorously" reflect Pittsburgh's industrial history. Carnegie established the Robert Lepper Distinguished Lecture series in his honor. In 1994, Norbert Nathanson and Dale Stein, both former students of Lepper, produced a video documentary ''An Affectionate Memoir, Robert L. Lepper.'' The documentary was narrated by Lepper's daughter, Susan Lepper, and may be found in the Lepper Archives, Hunt Library of

, Pittsburgh, PA.''An Affectionate Memoir, Robert L. Lepper.''
Worldcat.org. Retrieved March 28, 2014.