William Shields

1997 "Blue Heaven" Abstract Oil Painting on Canvas Illustrator Bill Shields

1997

William Stephens Shields, Jr., 1925 - 2010 "A Piece of Heaven" 1994 Oil on canvas 48"x48" artist framed Signed lower right William Stephens Shields, Jr., 1925 - 2010 He was born in san Francisco, in 1931, Bill moved to Texas, where he grew up. Moved to New York in 1940 and later joined the Naval Air Corps at the age of 18. He served as an Aviation Cadet in the U.S. Navy from 1943 to 1945. At the end of WWII, Bill returned to Texas. At 21, Bill re-focused his energy and enrolled in the Chicago Academy of Fine Art as an Illustration major. What followed was a whirlwind of success, great friendships and a sense of belonging he had never before experienced. Art was his calling and the art-world could not have been less prepared for the likes of Bill Shields. He took them by storm, first Houston, then San Francisco, followed by New York in the late 60's. For 35 years, Bill produced some of the country's best illustrations: fresh, playful, loose and innovative. His illustrations were coveted by such clients as Bantam Books, Time Life, MacMillan Publishing Co., and were awarded numerous gold medals by the Societies of Illustrators in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, and the Houston Artists Guild. Later, following inspirational trips to Mexico and France, Bill shifted his attention to the self-directed world of fine art. After years of sculpting, making assemblages, painting nudes and landscapes, he settled on the exploration of large abstract oil paintings. His paintings have been exhibited in galleries in San Francisco, Connecticut and New York. CV EDUCATION: Chicago Academy Of Fine Art San Antonio Art Institute MAJOR FIELDS OF PROFESSIONAL ENDEAVOR: Freelance graphic design and illustration Instructor of painting and illustration Landscape, figurative and abstract painting ART RELATED EMPLOYMENT: (Professor of Art) California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, CA Academy of Art College, San Francisco, CA San Francisco Art Institute San Jose State University AWARDS FOR ILLUSTRATION, Gold Medals: New York Society of Illustrators Los Angeles Society of Illustrators San Francisco Society of Illustrators Dallas-Fort Worth Art Director's Club Houston Artist's Guild BIBLIOGRAPHY: Feature articles in: American Artist, Communication Arts, Print, North Light. Architectural design featured in: Better Homes and Gardens, American Home, Sunset Magazine, Architectural Digest. ILLUSTRATION CLIENTS: Oil Companies: Champlin Oil Company, Mobil Oil Company, Continental Oil Company, Standard Oil Company, Humble Oil...

William Stephens Shields, Jr., 1925 - 2010 "Nightmare at Baskin Robbins II" 1994 Oil on canvas 48"x42" artist framed Signed lower right William Stephens Shields, Jr., 1925 - 2010 He was born in san Francisco, in 1931, Bill moved to Texas, where he grew up. Moved to New York in 1940 and later joined the Naval Air Corps at the age of 18. He served as an Aviation Cadet in the U.S. Navy from 1943 to 1945. At the end of WWII, Bill returned to Texas. At 21, Bill re-focused his energy and enrolled in the Chicago Academy of Fine Art as an Illustration major. What followed was a whirlwind of success, great friendships and a sense of belonging he had never before experienced. Art was his calling and the art-world could not have been less prepared for the likes of Bill Shields. He took them by storm, first Houston, then San Francisco, followed by New York in the late 60's. For 35 years, Bill produced some of the country's best illustrations: fresh, playful, loose and innovative. His illustrations were coveted by such clients as Bantam Books, Time Life, MacMillan Publishing Co., and were awarded numerous gold medals by the Societies of Illustrators in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, and the Houston Artists Guild. Later, following inspirational trips to Mexico and France, Bill shifted his attention to the self-directed world of fine art. After years of sculpting, making assemblages, painting nudes and landscapes, he settled on the exploration of large abstract oil paintings. His paintings have been exhibited in galleries in San Francisco, Connecticut and New York. CV EDUCATION: Chicago Academy Of Fine Art San Antonio Art Institute MAJOR FIELDS OF PROFESSIONAL ENDEAVOR: Freelance graphic design and illustration Instructor of painting and illustration Landscape, figurative and abstract painting ART RELATED EMPLOYMENT: (Professor of Art) California College of Arts and Crafts, Oakland, CA Academy of Art College, San Francisco, CA San Francisco Art Institute San Jose State University AWARDS FOR ILLUSTRATION, Gold Medals: New York Society of Illustrators Los Angeles Society of Illustrators San Francisco Society of Illustrators Dallas-Fort Worth Art Director's Club Houston Artist's Guild BIBLIOGRAPHY: Feature articles in: American Artist, Communication Arts, Print, North Light. Architectural design featured in: Better Homes and Gardens, American Home, Sunset Magazine, Architectural Digest. ILLUSTRATION CLIENTS: Oil Companies: Champlin Oil Company, Mobil Oil Company, Continental Oil Company, Standard Oil Company, Humble Oil and Refining Company. Industrial: Hughes Tool Company, General Electric, United States Steel, Phelps Dodge, Sylvania Television, Texas Gulf Sulphur, Litton Industries, Houston Lighting and Power Company...

Steven is now one of the top emerging artists in the U.S. His works are groundbreaking, bold, and imbued with unflinching disregard for painting conventions. ...

This is a large colorful, bold, vibrant original oil painting on canvas, hand signed and dated 1989. It is titled Tango. Joan Thorne (1943-) is a New York artist nationally and internationally recognized. A third generation Abstract Expressionist woman artist who has exhibited works over the past 30 years. Her art has been shown in the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, the Whitney Museum’s Annual Exhibition, the Grand Palais in Paris, and Barbara Rose’s seminal exhibition American Painting: The Eighties at New York University’s Grey Gallery. Her recent shows in New York City have been reviewed by the New York Times, Art in America, ArtNews and The New Criterion among others. Her work has been compared to Elizabeth Murray work. It is colorful and has a 1980's, Memphis Milano feel to it. Thorne grew up in Greenwich Village. Her mother was a Ukrainian immigrant from a musical family, who became an English teacher; her father, a surgeon. Recognizing their daughter’s artistic talents early, they enrolled her at age six in the Little Red Schoolhouse on Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village. Founded in 1921 by Elisabeth Irwin, a pioneer in educational reform, the school has continued to maintain its reputation as a progressive and nurturing catalyst for creative children. Pete Seeger, the folk singer, performed there so frequently that Thorne remembered him as if he were one of the teachers. In 1971, Thorne met Faith Ringgold (b. 1930) and joined her as a teacher at the Women’s House of Detention on Rikers Island in a new program called “Art without Walls–Free Space.” The program, which had been born from the civil rights movement, was aimed at enriching the lives of the inmates. Thorne and her peers came of age struggling against sexism in the art establishment and its attendant lack of exhibition opportunities for women. Since 1985, this issue had been loudly exposed by the public protests of the Guerrilla Girls, whose members remain a well-kept secret. Her painting has been included in two Whitney Museum Biennials and various other museum group exhibitions both in the United States, Europe and Latin America. She has had numerous one person shows in galleries such as: Sideshow Gallery New York, Fischbach Gallery, New York City, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., Willard Gallery, New York, Graham & Sons Gallery, New York, The Clocktower, New York City, and the National Arts Club among others. Thorne has been awarded the Prix de Rome Fellowship to paint at the American Academy in Rome. She also received two National Endowment grants for painting and two Pollock Krasner Grants among others. "Since 1973, while myriad styles, movements and mediums have flourished briefly in turn, Joan Thorne has steadfastly developed one visual language-that of painterly surface, light, color and distilled form-which she finds best suited for her artistic project: intimating dreams. intuitions and the psychic consequences of travel. " "For there is something luxuriant and mysterious in Thorne's compositions. They have a classic modernist genealogy that encompasses Arthur Dove, Georgia O'Keeffe, Marsden Hartley, Milton Avery and Mark Tobey; yet each carries a hint of exoticism, " --Richard Vine, Art In America, Review, June 1998 Education Hunter College, New York, M.A. New York University, New York, B.S. Awards 2006 Adolf Gottlieb Foundation Grant in Painting 2003 Prize in Painting, Florence BiennaleInternazionale, Florence, Italy 2001 Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant in Painting 1986 Prix de Rome, American Academy in Rome Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant in Painting 1983 National Endowment for the Arts, Fellowship in Painting 1980 New York State Council on the Arts, Grant for Painting 1979 National Endowment for the Arts, Fellowship in Painting 1976 Grant in Painting, Rhode Island State Council on the Arts 1975 New York State Council on the Arts, Grant for Painting 1974 Grant in Painting, Rhode Island State Council on the Arts 1972 Artist of the Year, Aldrich Foundation Select Solo Exhibitions 2015 Black and White Into Color, National Arts Club, New York 2013 Sideshow Gallery, Williamsburg, NY 2005 Chris Winfield Gallery, Carmel, CA 2004 Klaus Steinmetz Arte Contemporaneo, San Rafael de Escazu, Costa Rica 2002 Feria de Arte International Arcale, Salamanca, España 2001 Andre Zarre Gallery, New York 2000 Retrospective: Museo Las Americas, San Juan, Puerto Rico 1998 A Retrospective: Museo Voluntariado De Las Casas Reales, Casa de Bastidas, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic 1990 1985 Graham Modern , New York City, NY 1989 1986 Ruth Bachofen Gallery, Santa Monica, CA 1986 William Halsey Gallery, Simon Center for the Arts, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC 1983 Lincoln Center Gallery, Lincoln Center, New York City, NY Dart Gallery, Chicago, IL Gloria Luria Gallery, Bay Harbor Island, FL 1982 Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo, N 1980 Willard Gallery, New York 1979 The Clocktower: Institute for Art and Urban Resources, New York City, NY 1977 Galerie Veith Turske, Cologne Art Fair, Cologne, Germany 1974 Fischbach Gallery, New York City, NY 1973 Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC Select Group Exhibitions 2019 Art On Paper, March 2019, New York, NY 2018 Sideshow Gallery, The Greatest Show On Earth, Williamsburg, NY 2015 Outside The Lines/Modernist Drawings, National Arts Club, NY 2014 "National Arbor Day Show", National Arts Club, New York, NY ArtHamptons Fair, July 10-13, East Hampton, NY Tribal and Contemporary Art, June 12 - July 28, New York, NY 2012 Art Southampton, International and Contemporary Modern Art Fair, Hollis Taggart 2010 Janet Kurnatowsky Gallery, New York 2003 Biennale Internazionale Dell' Arte Contemporanea, Florence, Italy 2002 Gallery Uno 'Spazio Su Misura, Milan, Italy 1991 Andre Emmerich Gallery, "Abstract Painting of the 90's", curated by Barbara Rose. New York Stock Exchange, Invitational 1989 Graham Modern, "Synthesis" 1986 Graham Modern, "Diptychs, Triptychs, Polyptychs" Sidney Janis Gallery, "American Women Artists", New York City, NY Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo, NY N.Y.C.W.C.A., "Abstract Painting: Painting by Women Artists...