After studying with S.W. Hayter at the experimental print workshop Atelier 17, Robert Broner continued to use a wide range of innovative techniques during his years as a printmaker. Besides using the traditional techiques of engraving, etching, aquatint, lithography and phot-lithography, silkscreen and woodcut, he developed several new techniques. In the 1950's he invented the texture imprint, an intaglio process created by cutting and inking fabrics that are then collaged on a metal plate and printed as a monotype. This innovation led Broner to use other found objects in his printmaking. In the late sixties and early seventies he printed directly from electrical circuit boards, using them like intaglio plates. Broner also cast paper pulp in the image of electrical circuits, and vacuum-formed them. He later began using three-dimensional found objects, such as crushed tin cans, inking and collaging the objects to create printed landscapes. The technique of metal collage prints was initiated by the experimental printmaking of German Expresionist Rolf Nesch. Broner also made early use of the photocopying proces to create mail-art images.

His most recent experiments have been with woodcuts. Broner collages multiple pieces of wood into a single surface on which he then cuts his image. The individual pieces of wood are inked separately before being printed as a single large print. He calls this relief printing process collage woodcut.

 

Chronology
1944–46: Graduated from Wayne State University, B.F.A., M.A. in Art.
1950: Studied painting with Stuart Davis at New School for Social Research, New York.
1949–52: Studied etching with S. W. Hayter at Atelier 17, New York.
1965–1987: Professor of Art, Emeritus, Wayne State University, Detroit.
1982–1992: Professor at Cooper Union, School of Art, New York.
1992: Exchange Professor at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem.