About the artist
1895–1990, born in Kentucky; lived and worked in and around Columbus, Ohio
As proudly inscribed on most of his paintings, William Hawkins was born in Kentucky on July 27, 1895, though he spent much of his adult life in and around Columbus, Ohio, where he first moved in 1916 to avoid a shotgun wedding. One of the most highly regarded African-American self-taught artists of the twentieth century, Hawkins worked tirelessly at numerous jobs—often simultaneously—ranging from breaking horses and running numbers to industrial steel casting and truck driving. He served in the Army in World War One, working burial details in France. Hawkins began painting in the 1930s, though he only dedicated himself exclusively to art around 1979, when he was discovered by neighboring artist Lee Garrett, leading to national attention and what collectors generally describe as his mature period.
Tending to paint with a single brush and semigloss enamels on large plywood and Masonite surfaces, he often worked from his own black-and-white photographs of buildings and animals, boldly articulating his unique, expressionistic interpretations of architectural form, religious subjects, and nature studies in bright color and broad, patterned brushstrokes. By the time of his death in 1990, Hawkins had amassed a body of work comprising approximately 500 paintings and pencil drawings (not counting his lost early pieces), gradually turning toward human figuration in his final years. His highly personal visions of architecture and pop cultural themes are generally rendered in a restrained palette, sometimes including collaged found objects or images to designate depth and dimension in lieu of conventional perspective or detail. William Hawkins is one of America’s most widely exhibited and collectable self-taught painters, and his work can be found at the American Folk Art Museum, New York; the High Museum of Art, Atlanta; the National Gallery, Washington, D.C.; and in Ohio at the Columbus Museum of Art and the Akron Art Museum.
—Brendan Greaves
Bibliography
Arnett, William, and Paul Arnett, eds. Souls Grown Deep: African American Vernacular Art from the South, Volume 1. Atlanta, Georgia: Tinwood Books in association with Schomburg Center for Research in Black Cultures, New York, 2000.
Black History and Artistry: Work by Self-Taught Painters and Sculptors from the Blanchard-Hill Collection. New York: Baruch College/CUNY, 1993.
Cubbs, Joanne and Eugene W. Metcalf. “William Hawkins and the Art of Astonishment.” Folk Art 22, no. 3 (Fall 1997): 58-67.
Driven to Create: The Anthony Petullo Collection of Self-Taught & Outsider Art. Milwaukee Art Museum, 1993.
Hartigan, Lynda. Made with Passion: The Hemphill Folk Art Collection in the National Museum of American Art. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990.
Maresca, Frank and Roger Ricco. William Hawkins: Paintings. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997.
People, Places and Things: An African-American Perspective. Columbus, OH: Columbus Museum of Art, 1992.
Popular Images, Personal Visions: The Art of William Hawkins, 1895-1990. Columbus, OH: Columbus Museum of Art, 1990.
Schwindler, Gary J. “William Hawkins: Master Storyteller.” Raw Vision 4 (March 1991): 40-45.
Self-Taught Artists of the 20th Century: An American Anthology. New York: Museum of American Folk Art, in association with Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 1998.
William Hawkins: Drawings in Context. Columbus, OH: Ohio Arts Council/Riffe Gallery, 2000.
William L. Hawkins, 1895-1990. New York: Ricco/Maresca Gallery, 1990.
William L. Hawkins: Transformations. Charleston, IL: Tarble Arts Center, College of Fine Arts, Eastern Illinois University, 1989.
Artwork
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William Hawkins
Photo courtesy Ricco/Maresca Gallery, New York |
William Hawkins
Untitled (Five Horses)
Collection of Audrey B. Heckler, New York |
William Hawkins
Khrushchev Collage
enamel on Masonite
48 x 39 inches
Courtesy Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York |
William Hawkins Alligator, 1988
enamel, mixed media on Masonite
48 x 48 inches
Courtesy Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York |
William Hawkins
Elk with Human Eyes, 1988
enamel, mixed media on Masonite
48 x 48 inches
Courtesy Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York |
William Hawkins
Winter Sleigh #1, 1988
enamel on Masonite
37 x 48 inches
Collection of Audrey B. Heckler, New York |