Inverarity, Robert Bruce, 1909-1999

Designer, museum director; La Jolla, Calif.

Robert Bruce Inverarity (1909-1999) was a designer and a museum director in La Jolla, Calif.

Robert Bruce Inverarity, b. 1909, Designer, museum director of La Jolla, Calif.

Robert Bruce Inverarity was born in Seattle in 1909. Between 1939 and 1941 he was a key figure in the WPA (Work Projects Administration), employed as state director of the Federal Art Project and the Art and Craft Project. Following work for the U.S. Navy and Boeing Aircraft Company in the 1940s, Inverarity became founding director of the Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe. He later served as director of the Adirondack Museum (1954-1965) and the Philadelphia Maritime Museum (1969-1976). Inverarity was an authority on Northwest Native American art; his book, Art of the Northwest Coast Indians, was published in 1950. Robert Inverarity's father, Duncan George Inverarity (1868-1949), was prominent in the vaudeville theatrical circuit and in Seattle society. Following work as an agent for John Cort in Seattle, he held managerial positions with the Coliseum Theatre (1907-1908), Sullivan Considine Circuit (1908-1910), Pantages Theatre Company (1922-1926), and John Danz theaters (1925-1926). Inverarity was active in the Tilikums of Elltais, a Seattle social organization; he was also a photographer for Edward Curtis and took part in the 1899 Harriman Alaska expedition.

Painter, sculptor, illustrator, lithographer, etcher, lecturer, museum director, author, puppeteer, state director of the Federal Art Project, Seattle, Wash.; La Jolla, Calif, ; b. 1909; d. 1999.

Studied at the University of Washington, Fremont University, and with Kazue Yamagishi and Mark Tobey. Exhibited in one-man shows and group exhibitions in the U.S. and Canada. Was director of the Museum of International Folk Art (1949-1954), the Adirondack Museum (1954-1965), and the Philadelphia Maritime Museum (1969-1976). He is the author/illustrator of "Blockprinting and Stencilling," and a "Manual of Puppetry."

Painter, sculptor, illustrator, lithographer, etcher, lecturer, museum director, author, puppeteer, state director of the Federal Art Project, Seattle, Wash.; La Jolla, Calif, ; b. 1909; d. 1999.

Studied at the University of Washington, Fremont University, and with Kazue Yamagishi and Mark Tobey. Exhibited in one-man shows and group exhibitions in the U.S. and Canada. Was director of the Museum of International Folk Art (1949-1954), the Adirondack Museum (1954-1965), and the Philadelphia Maritime Museum (1969-1976). He is the author/illustrator of "Blockprinting and Stencilling," and a "Manual of Puppetry."

Robert Bruce Inverarity (1909-1999) was a painter, sculptor, illustrator, lithographer, etcher, lecturer, museum director, author, puppeteer, and state director of the Federal Art Project from Seattle, Wash. and La Jolla, Calif.

Studied at the University of Washington, Fremont University, and with Kazue Yamagishi and Mark Tobey. Exhibited in one-man shows and group exhibitions in the U.S. and Canada. Was director of the Museum of International Folk Art (1949-1954), the Adirondack Museum (1954-1965), and the Philadelphia Maritime Museum (1969-1976). He is the author/illustrator of "Blockprinting and Stencilling," and a "Manual of Puppetry."

Painter, lecturer, state director of the Federal Art Project; Seattle, Wash.

Studied at the University of Washington, Fremont University and with Kazue Yamagishi and Mark Tobey. Exhibited in one-man shows and group exhibitions in the U.S. and Canada. Directed the Museum of International Folk Art, the Adirondack Museum, and the Philadelphia Maritime Museum. Wrote and illustrated BLOCKPRINTING AND STENCILLING and A MANUAL OF PUPPETRY.

Painter, lecturer, state director of the Federal Art Project; Seattle, Wash.

Studied at the University of Washington, Fremont University and with Kazue Yamagishi and Mark Tobey. Exhibited in one-man shows and group exhibitions in the U.S. and Canada. Directed the Museum of International Folk Art, the Adirondack Museum, and the Philadelphia Maritime Museum. Wrote and illustrated BLOCKPRINTING AND STENCILLING and A MANUAL OF PUPPETRY.

Robert Bruce Inverarity (1909-1999) showed artistic leanings as a boy, and from an early age was fascinated by puppetry and Northwest Coast native culture. During much of his youth, Inverarity's family lived in Canada, but returned to their native Seattle when he was a teenager. After graduating from high school, he made a 500 mile journey on foot along the coasts of the Vancouver Islands, collecting Indian artifacts and studying the area's tribal legends.

He studied briefly with Mark Tobey in Seattle, where the two shared a studio; when Tobey departed for Chicago, Inverarity succeeded him as an art teacher at the Cornish School. He spent the next few years in California working as an artist, exhibiting, and occasionally teaching. From there, he moved to Vancouver where he was Director of the School of Creative Art. In 1932, Inverarity made a three month trip to the Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia, for the purpose of studying the Haida Indians.

Upon his return to the United States in 1933, Inverarity joined the University of Washington Drama School as a puppetry instructor; in 1938 he published a highly regarded Manual of Puppetry . During 1936-37, he took a leave of absence from the university to assume the position of State Director of the Federal Art Project, where he remained until 1939. He then became State Director of the Art and Crafts Project (1939-1941). The U.S. Navy appointed Inverarity Chief of Design for Camouflage (1941-1943) and he later served as an Official Navy War Artist (1943-1945).

During his early years as a teacher and administrator, Inverarity continued making art and participated in a wide variety of exhibitions. He published a portfolio, 12 Photographs by R. B. Inverarity (1940). In the following year, Movable Masks and Figures of the North Pacific Coast Indians, a portfolio of his watercolors reproduced as silkscreen prints, appeared. Although Inverarity stopped exhibiting in 1941, he continued to produce art; notable work of this period includes photographic portraits of a number of artist friends (Max Ernst, Dorothea Tanning, Marcel Duchamp, and Man Ray).

After World War II, Inverarity completed his formal education. He earned a Bachelor's degree in art and anthropology from the University of Washington (1946), and then studied with Hilaire Hiler at Freemont University in Los Angeles, where he was awarded a Master's degree in fine arts (1947) and a Ph.D. (1948).

Inverarity began his museum career in 1949 when he was appointed the first director of the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a position that combined his interest in, and knowledge of, anthropology and art. While in Santa Fe, he published Art of the North West Coast Indians (1950). During his five year tenure as director, the museum participated in a pilot study for coding visual files, a project of the anthropological group, Human Resources Area Files, Inc. When Inverarity was dismissed from the Museum of International Folk Art in 1954, most of the staff resigned in protest, and the American Association of Museums investigated the situation.

Inverarity then became the first director of the Adirondack Museum, Blue Mountain Lake, New York, where he remained for eleven years. In addition to planning the museum's building, and developing collections and programs, Inverarity continued his involvement with the visual files project of the Human Resources Area Files, Inc., studying information storage and retrieval, developing a "microreader," and publishing Visual Files Coding Index (1960). In addition, he published many articles on a variety of topics and was active in organizations for anthropologists and museum professionals.

After his 1965 departure from the Adirondack Museum, Inverarity went to California and worked as an illustrator and book designer at the University of California Press. He returned to the east coast in 1969 to assume the directorship of the Philadelphia Maritime Museum. During this period, he remained active in professional associations and traveled to study museums abroad. He retired in 1976 and moved to La Jolla, California.

Robert Bruce Inverarity died in 1999.