William King (b.1925) Prints and Multiples

Sculptor William King is widely renowned for his signature flattened and stilt-legged figures, gesturing dramatically. Humorous and rife with social commentary, his work first offered an alternative to Abstract Expressionism in the 1950s, then to Minimalism and conceptual art in the 1960s and 1970s. Through one radical art historical shift after another, King has maintained his commitment to the figure and social realism. Working with aluminum and vinyl, he arranges his painted figures in configurations that transform various social activities into satirical or fantastic situations. A man in a business suit with hands in his pockets is a recurring figure throughout his work. King was born in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1925, and grew up in Coconut Grove, Miami. After attending the University of Florida between 1942 and 1944, he came to New York in 1945, enrolling that year at Cooper Union and graduating in 1948. The following year he went to Rome on a Fulbright scholarship. Beginning in 1953, he taught for three years at the Brooklyn Museum Art School. He has also taught at the University of California, Berkeley, and elsewhere. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and was President of the National Academy of Design between 1994 and 1998. He is the father of Eli King and Amy King, and lives with his wife, Connie Fox, in East Hampton, New York. King’s earliest one-person shows were with the Alan Gallery, New York, beginning in 1954. The majority of his subsequent New York exhibitions were with the Terry Dintenfass Gallery. Of note in the writings about the artist are reviews by Fairfield Porter, in 1954 (in Art News) and 1960 (in The Nation), and numerous essays and reviews by Hilton Kramer. The fullest biographical account of the artist is by Gerald Nordland, in a 1994 gallery exhibition catalog entitled William King: Forty Years of Work in Wood. Previous awards include the Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts Individual Artist Grant, San Francisco Arts Commission Award for Outstanding Achievement in Sculpture, Honorary Doctorate for Outstanding Achievement in Sculpture from the San Francisco Art Institute, Honorary Doctorate from the California College of Arts and Crafts, and Honorary Doctorate from the Corcoran School of Art, Washington, D.C. EDUCATION University of Florida, 1942 – 1944 Cooper Union Art School, New York, 1945 – 1948 Brooklyn Museum Art School, New York, 1949 Academia dei Belle Arti, Rome, 1949 – 1950 Central School, London, England, 1952 AWARDS Sculpture Prize, Cooper Union Art School, New York, 1948 Fulbright Grant, 1949 – 1950 Margaret Tiffany Blake Fresco Award, 1951 Augustus St. Gaudens Medal, Cooper Union, New York, 1964 Creative Artists Public Service Award and Grant, 1974 Hakone Open-Air Museum, Japan, Distinction Prize, 1980 National Academy of Design, New York, Gold Medal, 1986 American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, Louise Nevelson Award, 1995 Guild Hall of East Hampton, Lifetime Achievement in the Arts, Visual Arts Award, 1997 SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS Alan Gallery, New York, 1954, 1955, 1961 San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, California, 1970 Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California, 1970 Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana, 1971 Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, 1971 Ringling Museum, Sarasota, Florida, 1971 Dag Hammerskjold Plaza, New York, 1971 Alpha Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts, 1971, 1982 Montgomery Museum of Art, Montgomery, Alabama, 1972, 1987 Jacksonville Art Museum, Jacksonville, Florida, 1972 Hopkins Art Center, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, 1972 Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts, 1972 Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut, 1972 Tennessee Fine Arts Center, Nashville, Tennessee, 1972 University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska, 1972 Elvehjem Art Center, University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire, 1973 University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, 1973 William Benton Museum, University of Connecticut, 1973 State Universities of New York (traveling exhibitions), 1974 Benson Gallery, Bridgehampton, New York, 1976 Zabriskie Gallery, New York, 1977 Louise Himmelfarb Gallery, Water Mill New York, 1980 Wingspread Gallery, Northeast Harbor, Maine, 1981 Gallery Paule Anglim, San Francisco, California, 1985, 1987 Hooks-Epstein Gallery, Houston, Texas, 1986 Hunter Museum, Chattanooga, Tennessee, 1987 David Heath...