Laurence Barker

From 1960 to 1970, Laurence Barker was head of the printmaking department at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, MI. Barker assembled the necessary equipment to establish a fine arts papermill at Cranbrook, making it the first university-based papermaking program in America in 1963. This program started by Barker served as the breeding ground for some of America’s leading papermakers.

His own artwork explores the full “rheostat” of the possibilities of paper, from custom handmade papers to wet-sculpted, distressed and folded sheets. Although he was born in Houston, TX in 1930, Barker moved to Barcelona, Spain in 1970, and installed his studio and paper mill there. He headed the Smithsonian Institute Print Workshop in Barcelona in 1972. Barker acted as a visiting artist at the Cleveland Institute of Art from 1979-1980. He has split his time between Barcelona and Sarasota, FL since 1995.

In addition to his own art, Barker has produced paper for other well-known artists—including Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, and Mark Tobey to name a few.