"Paint by Number: Accounting for Taste in the 1950s," Archive
'Every Man's a Rembrandt'
Chicago Tribune
It was slightly more than a half-century ago that Robbins came up with an idea that was to shake America.
It was a concept that became as big as poodle skirts or air-raid drills back in the l960s.
The idea was the paint-by-numbers kit.
Paint by numbers is suddenly a hot topic again, thanks largely to a new exhibition at the Smithsonian
Institution's National Museum of American History, titled "Paint by Number: Accounting for Taste in the
195Os."
The show, though, is just part of the revival. There was also an article in Smithsonian magazine. Collectors
are shelling out big money for vintage paint-by-numbers paintings and kits on eBay. CBS Sunday Morning is
planning a segment on the subject. And there is renewed iterested in Robbins' 1997 book, "Whatever Happened
to Paint-By-Numbers" (Possum Hill Press), which is selling well again. "You wonder ... what happened?" Robbins says,
smiling. "Fifty years happened. Time happened. Now it's paint by numbers as a collectible. It's kitsch."
The Smithsonian exhibit showcases the fad in an art gallery-type setting, with more than 200 paintings
(some done by well-known personalities of the day,
others - from collections across the country) as well as paint-by-numbers kits and other memorabilia.
"It's been very interesting for me, really, to go down into the hall and see people contemplating these
paintings," says Wi!liam L. Bird, curator of the exhibit and proud owner of some 30 paint by-numbers
pieces mined from thrift shops, flea markets and estate sales over the years.
Of course, there's more to the show than viewing J. Edgar Hoover's rendition of "Swiss VilIage" or Ethel
Merman's "Old Mill." Bird's goal was to give visitors an idea of how paint-by-numbers paintings, sold
under the sIogan, "Every Man a Rembrandt," fit the times and fit into the lives of the people who painted
them.
"This is a hobby for people who had newly found leisure time and typically had a home to decorate,
perhaps for the first time," Bird says. "And they had the income to do it. But yet paint-by-numbers is a
compromise between a desire to be creative and the need to earn an income to keep a roof over our head."
"I always said that paint by numbers wasn't art. But it gives the individual the experience of art," he
says, sitting in his Oak Brook basement "This is not a studio," he insists. "It's a basement and I just
happen to work here".
"Most people would be scared to death to pick up a brush and try to paint. With paint by numbers, you
have the outline and the premixed paint, and it takes the fear out of it. It gives people the feeling that
they created something themseIves."
Crediting Leonardo
Robbins was working for the Palmer Show Card Paint Co. in Detroit in 1949 when he came up with the
concept. OK, he doesn't take full credit; part of it goes to Leonardo da Vinci.
"Leonardo studied patterns - he studied weathered buildings, burning embers, falling snow," Robbins says.
"One thing he did was to give his students numbered patterns and ask them, what can you do with this? And
they'd paint them."
It was a small step from the children's coloring books Robbins aIready was designing for PaImer Paint to
a kit for adults, with little numbered containers of paint and pictures broken down into numbered sections. He pitched the
idea to company owner Max Klein, who wanted to see an example.
"In 1950, abstracts were kind of hot, so that's what I did," Robbins says. "It was 12 by 16 and I did it
in 22 colors."
That first painting, known as Abstract No. I, didn't grab the boss, or any other employees who critiqued
it, for that matter.
"Max told me he hated it, that abstracts were crap," Robbins says. "He hated the painting but loved the
idea."
Back to drawing board
So, Robbins scrapped Abstract No. 1 - it was later issued, anyhow and went back to the drawing board. He
came up with a painting of fishermen in boats ("The Fishermen". Klein loved it and they were on their
way, selling more than 12 million Craft Master paint-by-numbers kits by 1954 and millions more until the
fad started fading in the '60s.
"It has survived in spite of all the criticism from art teachers and artists," says Robbins, whose
favorite painting is a version of the "Old Mill" that was done by his mother (it's hanging in his basement).
"We have had slings and arrows from all directions."
But they also had their fans. Still do.
Grant Richey, an actor from Minneapolis who admits to being "a huge collector of junk," has more than 75
of the paintings, most from the 1950s, in his collection. His most recent purchase was also his biggest a
copy of Abstract No. 1 that he paid $500 for on eBay earlier this month.
He had spen a copy of Abstract No. 1 a year ago but it wasn't for sale. His interest was rekindIed when he
saw the piece pictured in the Smithsonian magazine article.
"I was on a mission," he says.
"The next day I saw it on eBay, and I said, 'Damn it, I've got to bid on it. "Five hundred bucks, and
that was the reserve. I figured I wouldn't get it, but I did."
Before the recent upswing in interest, Richey was accustomed to paying 50 cents to $5 for a
paint-by-numbers masterpiece. Those days are gone.
A couple of months ago, a secondhand store where he shops called. "She said she had this beautiful
painting and it was $20, and I said, 'Screw that, I'm not paying $20 for a paint by numbers.' But now
I realize it's ridiculous, they're just going to skyrocket. So now I'll pay anywhere from $50 to $100."
Richey's purchase has put him in touch with other collectors who contacted him through eBay.
"People from all over the country are e-mailing me," he says. "There's this cult, this group. . . . It's
kind of cool, that there are these odd people who collect these things."
"Paint by Number: Accountingfor Taste in the l950s" runs at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum
of American History through Dec. 31, 2001. For more information, go to http.//americanhistory.si.edu/paint.
Copyright 2001, The Chicago Tribune.
By William Hageman Tribune staff reporter
?April 25, 2001
Ask Dan Robbins about his contribution to 20th Century culture and what it says about art in this country and
he'd chuckle. Then he'd shake his head.
Robbins, 76 and still working as a freelance artist and designer, started with the idea that there's a
little bit of artist in all of us, then expanded on it.
Tribune photos by John Kringas