Lou Barlow was one of the finest wood-engravers of the 20th century. Working with very hard boxwood blocks and fine tools, he created extremely detailed prints with complex surfaces. He created drama and energy with his use of elongated figures in such well-known prints as “Cutting Ice,” “The Race,” “Ballerinas,” and “Jitterbugs,” all done on the WPA (Works Project Administration). He was on the WPA for five years (1934-1939). Barlow created a print a month for 2 ½ years and taught at settlement houses for 2 ½ years. His mentor in the Graphic Arts Division of the WPA was Lynd Ward, who helped him get started. Lou trained himself and was so skilled that Ward said, “I have nothing to teach you.”
Barlow graduated from the National Academy of Design in New York in 1930. Seventy years later, in 2000, he was elected as a member. Some of his classmates at the Academy were William H. Johnson, Lee Krasner, Ilya Bolotowsky, and Bill Steig, the cartoonist.
In 1932-33, he studied art in Italy, France, and Germany. In 1942, he was drafted into the army and was selected to participate in a new Medical Arts Division of the Army Medical Corps. He served in Europe and Africa.
After the war, he earned his living as a medical illustrator from 1946-1980. He was the Director of Scientific Illustration at William Douglas McAdams, the nation’s leading medical advertising agency at that time. He exhibited some of his medical paintings, watercolors, and drawings at the National Arts Club in New York in 1975.
In 1981-86, he returned to making woodblock prints. One of his well-known prints from 1984 was the wood-engraving of Martin Luther King, Jr. in “1963 We Have a Dream 1983.” This print was included in the book In the Spirit of Martin, The Living Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Verve Editions, 2002. Wood blocks became difficult to obtain around this time, so by 1987, he started making linocuts on contemporary social and political themes.
From 1985-89, Barlow taught at Parsons School of Design in New York City. His works were exhibited extensively in the U.S. and in Europe.
