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Donald Roller Wilson Art

American, b. 1938

Donald Roller Wilson was born in Houston, Texas in 1938 and was educated at Wichita State University. He is known for using items in his paintings such as dogs and cats, chimpanzees, dill pickles, wooden matches, olives, asparagus stalks and even cigarettes. He paints in oils in very polished realism, using the same techniques of the Old Masters. Wilson taught at the University of Arkansas from 1967–74 and lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas, with his wife Kathleen, also an artist.

According to the New York Times, "Donald Roller Wilson's goofy, hallucinogenic, Old Master-style painting of monkeys, dogs and cats dressed up in antique costumes may be kitsch, but it's high-quality kitsch, like good beach reading." Some of the characters he has created include Cookie the Baby Orangutan, Jane the Pug Girl, Jack the Jack Russell “Terror,” Loretta the Actress Cat, Miss Dog America and Patricia the Seeing Eye Dog of Houston. Wilson's works can be seen in the Brooklyn Museum; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Whitney Museum; Bank of America in San Francisco, California; Coe Kerr Gallery, New York City; and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, as well as many other galleries. The majority of his work is in the hands of private collectors. He created album cover art for musician Frank Zappa during the 1980s and 1990s. Among these: Boulez Conducts Zappa: The Perfect Stranger (1984), Francesco Zappa (1984) and Them Or Us (1984). His main gallery at present is the John Berggruen Gallery in San Francisco, and his paintings may be collected through Peter Sahlman in New York.

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Artist: Donald Roller Wilson
The Seldom Seen Joanne: Naughty Betty and Mort
By Donald Roller Wilson
Located in San Francisco, CA
Oil on canvas in artist's frame 18 1/2 x 15 1/2 inches Framed: 24 1/2 x 21 1/2 x 2 5/8 inches
Category

Early 2000s Donald Roller Wilson Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

A RITE OF PASSAGE NAUGHTY BETTY…SEEN HERE ALONG WITH HER HALF-SISTER, JUDY…
By Donald Roller Wilson
Located in San Francisco, CA
Donald Roller Wilson A RITE OF PASSAGE NAUGHTY BETTY…SEEN HERE ALONG WITH HER HALF-SISTER, JUDY… BOTH GIRLS BEING OBSERVED POSTERIORLY BY THE FATHER…WATCHING WITH EXAGGERATED DISINTE...
Category

Late 20th Century Donald Roller Wilson Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

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18th century oil sketches for a Baroque interior - a pair
Located in London, GB
A FEAST OF THE GODS WITH VENUS AND BACCHUS Collections: With Appleby Brothers, London, June 1957; Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, London, 1961; John and Eileen Harris, acquired from the above, to 2015. Literature: Jacob Simon and Ellis Hillman, English Baroque Sketches: The Painted Interior in the Age of Thornhill, 1974, cat. no.12 (as by Louis Laguerre); Elizabeth Einberg (ed.), Manners and Morals: Hogarth and British Painting, 1700-1760, exh. cat., London (Tate Gallery), 1987, cat. no.10 (as by Louis Laguerre); Tabitha Barber and Tim Bachelor, British Baroque: Power and Illusion, exh. cat., London (Tate Britain), 2020. Exhibited: Twickenham, Marble Hill House, English Baroque Sketches: The Painted Interior in the Age of Thornhill, 1974, no.12 (as by Louis Laguerre); London, Tate Gallery, Manners and Morals: Hogarth and British Painting, 1700-1760, 1987, no.10 (as by Louis Laguerre); London, Tate Britain, British Baroque: Power and Illusion, cat. no 92, 2020. CUPID AND PSYCHE BEFORE JUPITER Collections: With Appleby Brothers, London, June 1957; Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, London, 1961; Anthony Hobson, acquired from the above, to 2015. These recently re-united paintings are the most ambitious surviving baroque ceiling sketches made in Britain in the early eighteenth century. From the Restoration until the rise of Palladianism in the 1720s decorative history painting formed the preeminent artistic discipline in Britain. It was a field dominated by Continental artists including the Italian Antonio Verrio and the Frenchmen Louis Laguerre and Louis Chéron...
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19th century portrait painted in St Petersburg in 1819
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Early oil depicting the Great Fire of London
Located in London, GB
The Great Fire of London in September 1666 was one of the greatest disasters in the city’s history. The City, with its wooden houses crowded together in narrow streets, was a natural fire risk, and predictions that London would burn down became a shocking reality. The fire began in a bakery in Pudding Lane, an area near the Thames teeming with warehouses and shops full of flammable materials, such as timber, oil, coal, pitch and turpentine. Inevitably the fire spread rapidly from this area into the City. Our painting depicts the impact of the fire on those who were caught in it and creates a very dramatic impression of what the fire was like. Closer inspection reveals a scene of chaos and panic with people running out of the gates. It shows Cripplegate in the north of the City, with St Giles without Cripplegate to its left, in flames (on the site of the present day Barbican). The painting probably represents the fire on the night of Tuesday 4 September, when four-fifths of the City was burning at once, including St Paul's Cathedral. Old St Paul’s can be seen to the right of the canvas, the medieval church with its thick stone walls, was considered a place of safety, but the building was covered in wooden scaffolding as it was in the midst of being restored by the then little known architect, Christopher Wren and caught fire. Our painting seems to depict a specific moment on the Tuesday night when the lead on St Paul’s caught fire and, as the diarist John Evelyn described: ‘the stones of Paul’s flew like grenades, the melting lead running down the streets in a stream and the very pavements glowing with the firey redness, so as no horse, nor man, was able to tread on them.’ Although the loss of life was minimal, some accounts record only sixteen perished, the magnitude of the property loss was shocking – some four hundred and thirty acres, about eighty per cent of the City proper was destroyed, including over thirteen thousand houses, eighty-nine churches, and fifty-two Guild Halls. Thousands were homeless and financially ruined. The Great Fire, and the subsequent fire of 1676, which destroyed over six hundred houses south of the Thames, changed the appearance of London forever. The one constructive outcome of the Great Fire was that the plague, which had devastated the population of London since 1665, diminished greatly, due to the mass death of the plague-carrying rats in the blaze. The fire was widely reported in eyewitness accounts, newspapers, letters and diaries. Samuel Pepys recorded climbing the steeple of Barking Church from which he viewed the destroyed City: ‘the saddest sight of desolation that I ever saw.’ There was an official enquiry into the causes of the fire, petitions to the King and Lord Mayor to rebuild, new legislation and building Acts. Naturally, the fire became a dramatic and extremely popular subject for painters and engravers. A group of works relatively closely related to the present picture have been traditionally ascribed to Jan Griffier...
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Previously Available Items
PATRICIA’S STRUGGLE TO GET TO THE PIANO DURING THE HIGH WINDS WHICH WHIPPED UP..
By Donald Roller Wilson
Located in San Francisco, CA
Donald Roller Wilson PATRICIA’S STRUGGLE TO GET TO THE PIANO DURING THE HIGH WINDS WHICH WHIPPED UP IN MRS. JENKINS’ HALLWAY: AND JUST PRIOR TO THE PERFORMANCE OF HER PIECE FOR PIEC...
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Holly Saw the Primary Colors Being Tossed into the Air
By Donald Roller Wilson
Located in San Francisco, CA
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Fun Red Modern Contemporary Limited Edition Watch by Donald Roller Wilson
By Donald Roller Wilson
Located in Houston, TX
A modern watch by Donald Roller Wilson. The watch features a red patent leather and a dial that features a monkey with male genitalia on its head. The watch has silver metal accents and shows only very minimal wear. Unsigned but it includes a handwritten note to the collector. The box is clean and intact. Watch length: 9" Strap width: 0.68" Dial dimensions: H: 1.5" x W 1" Artist Biography: Donald Roller Wilson (b. 1938) is an American artist, known for his paintings of people and anthropomorphized chimpanzees, orangutans, cats, and dogs, set in southern gothic...
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20th Century Modern Donald Roller Wilson Art

Materials

Leather

"Heads of Art" Whimsical Abstract Contemporary Lithograph of Dogs in Dresses
By Donald Roller Wilson
Located in Houston, TX
Whimsical abstract artist proof lithograph by Texas based artist Donald Roller Wilson. The work features a pair of bulldogs dresses in pink dresses with rainbow hats set against an abstract gray wall with text that reads "heads of art." Along the top margin the text reads: “And here are Helen and Helen- Arkansas Siamese girl bulldog twins joined primarily at their heads (once) but now joined again in the room of Mrs. Lamar Jenkins who never made it out of her house in her whole life. Mrs. Jenkins and the girls would get together and the girls would tell her jokes and stuff.” Signed and dated in front lower right corner. The central lower margin reads "Happy Birthday Judee <3 84 Roller." Currently hung in a light gray frame with a cream matting. Dimensions Without Frame: H 22.38 in. x W 30 in. Artist Biography: Donald Roller Wilson (born November 23, 1938) is an American artist. He is known for using items in his paintings, such as dogs and cats, chimpanzees, dill pickles, wooden matches, olives, asparagus stalks, and even cigarettes. He paints in oils in very polished realism using the same techniques of the old masters. He was born in Houston, Texas and educated at Wichita State University. He taught at the University of Arkansas from 1967 - 1974 and lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas, with his wife Kathleen, also an artist. According to the New York Times, "Donald Roller Wilson's goofy, hallucinogenic, old master-style painting of monkeys...
Category

1980s Modern Donald Roller Wilson Art

Materials

Lithograph

“Space Friends: Barn Trip” Modern Hyperrealist Cow & Olives Surrealist Painting
By Donald Roller Wilson
Located in Houston, TX
Modern hyperrealist painting of a cow surrounded by floating olives by Texas artist Donald Roller Wilson. The work is hung in a hexagonal frame, adding an additional layer of interest. Signed and dated along front lower margin. Artist Biography: Donald Roller Wilson (born November 23, 1938) is an American artist. He is known for using items in his paintings, such as dogs and cats, chimpanzees, dill pickles, wooden matches, olives, asparagus stalks, and even cigarettes. He paints in oils in very polished realism using the same techniques of the old masters. He was born in Houston, Texas and educated at Wichita State University. He taught at the University of Arkansas from 1967 - 1974 and lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas, with his wife Kathleen, also an artist. According to the New York Times, "Donald Roller Wilson's goofy, hallucinogenic, old master-style painting of monkeys...
Category

1970s Modern Donald Roller Wilson Art

Materials

Oil

I'd like to do it to you...
By Donald Roller Wilson
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Donald Roller Wilson, American (1938 - ) Title: I'd like to do it to you... Year: 1974 Medium: Mixed Media Collage, signed in pencil Size: 16 in. x 20 in. x 1.5 in. (40.64 cm...
Category

1970s Pop Art Donald Roller Wilson Art

Materials

Paper, Pencil

Abstract Surrealist Contemporary Still Life With Wooden Matches
By Donald Roller Wilson
Located in Houston, TX
Surrealist still life separated on four different panels and one canvas. The center panel has an eye in the middle with a match and an organic mass. On either is unlit matches. Two panels and a canvas frame the top of the piece. The canvas has an organic mass positioned in the center. On either side of the panels is a writing utensil forming a line. The work is incased in a lucite box. It is signed and dated by the artist on the large panel. Artist Biography: Donald Roller Wilson (born November 23, 1938) is an American artist. He is known for using items in his paintings, such as dogs and cats, chimpanzees, dill pickles, wooden matches, olives, asparagus stalks, and even cigarettes. He paints in oils in very polished realism using the same techniques of the old masters. He was born in Houston, Texas and educated at Wichita State University. He taught at the University of Arkansas from 1967 - 1974 and lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas, with his wife Kathleen, also an artist. According to the New York Times, "Donald Roller Wilson's goofy, hallucinogenic, old master-style painting of monkeys...
Category

1980s Contemporary Donald Roller Wilson Art

Materials

Acrylic

COOKIE...DRESSED AND READY TO ATTEND
By Donald Roller Wilson
Located in San Francisco, CA
Full Title: COOKIE...DRESSED AND READY TO ATTEND WHAT WOULD BECOME HER HALF-BROTHER JACK’S SECOND FAILED BAR MITZVAH...BUT WITH COOKIE WONDERING DURING A STILL MOMENT...THOUGH SHE W...
Category

2010s Donald Roller Wilson Art

Materials

Oil

GOOSE FREIGHT: MOTHER-IN-LAW: HARD BALLS
By Donald Roller Wilson
Located in San Francisco, CA
Category

Donald Roller Wilson Art

COOKIE
By Donald Roller Wilson
Located in San Francisco, CA
Category

Donald Roller Wilson Art

Kathleen, Convinced and Encouraged Through Faith
By Donald Roller Wilson
Located in San Francisco, CA
Category

Donald Roller Wilson Art

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Donald Roller Wilson art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Donald Roller Wilson art available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Donald Roller Wilson in canvas, fabric, oil paint and more. Not every interior allows for large Donald Roller Wilson art, so small editions measuring 22 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Luigi Lucioni, Stephen Scott Young, and Max Ferguson. Donald Roller Wilson art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $35,000 and tops out at $45,000, while the average work can sell for $40,000.

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