Robert Blackburn was introduced to printmaking in 1938 at the Harlem Community Art Center. At the Art Students League in 1941 he studied lithography with Will Barnet. In 1948 Blackburn established an early version of the Printmaking Workshop in his studio in Chelsea, organizing it as an informal cooperative where he and friends experimented with innovative lithographic techniques. The workshop assumed a catalytic role in the ''print boom'' of the 1960's, fostering a number of artists of color, and never lost its communal flavor. Blackburn printed for an emerging generation of artists that included Helen Frankenthaler, Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, many of those coming to printmaking for the first time. In 1981, Blackburn was elected a National Academician in 1994, received the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture Award for having contributed significantly to the cultural life of New York City, Governor's Art Award from the New York State Council on the Arts and was awarded MacArthur Genius Grant in 1992. Kathy's career sprung from her learning master printing fostered by Bob. She later collaborated as his master printer, on a Viscosity Plate made during Krishna Reddy's class.