About Blick Art Materials
WHAT (AND WHO) IS DICK BLICK?
Blick Art Materials is one of the largest and oldest providers of art supplies in the United States. Our products cater to the full spectrum of artists — the youngest child ready to scribble with his or her first crayon to well-known gallery-represented professionals. Our extensive selection, competitive prices, and superior customer service make us the best choice for artists, art educators, architects, designers, students, hobbyists, and anyone else requiring quality art materials for work or pleasure.
Many people have asked, “Dick Blick — is that a real person?” The answer is yes. In 1911, Mr. and Mrs. Dick Blick started a business by offering a lettering pen for sale in a self-produced pamphlet. The “warehouse” was their kitchen, the “shipping department” was the Galesburg, Illinois, post office.
Sensing a great opportunity, Robert Metzenberg — Blick’s “second founder” — bought the business in 1948. Blick Art Materials has grown through the decades from a two-person company with humble Midwestern beginnings into the nation’s premier art supply source for professional artists, students, and teachers.
