Robert James Reed Jr. (July 9, 1938 – December 26, 2014) born in Charlottesville, Virginia, was an American artist and professor of painting and printmaking at Yale School of Art for 45 years. In 1987, Reed was appointed to Yale School of Art's tenured permanent faculty making him, at the time of his death, the School's first and only African-American to be so appointed in the School's then 145 year history. In his artwork, Reed is known for his geometric abstraction and personalized symbols to create a language of abstraction. He employs abstract symbols, color and deeply textured brushwork to create his iconic imagery. As Reed would explain, fragments, paths, cultural and universal signs and symbols, remembered childhood images and places are organized into his imagery. His abstractions