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William L. Hawkins
NINE FACES OF MODERN MAN
1984

Name: NINE FACES OF MODERN MAN
Brand: William L. Hawkins

$35,000List Price

About the Item

To accompany William Hawkins on his walks through the streets of his Columbus, Ohio, neighborhood was like following an experienced prospector in search of gold. Hawkins's selective eye seized images from newspapers, magazines, and advertisements for a suitcase archive he kept in his bedroom. He combined these images with his own recollections and impressions to create a vivid picture gallery of animals, American icons such as the Statue of Liberty, and historic events. And although Hawkins could barely read and write, he transformed words themselves, usually represented by his signature and birth date and often his place of birth, into powerful visual elements. Born in rural Kentucky in 1895, Hawkins came north in 1916. His early years in Kentucky provided him with his knowledge and love of animals, an awareness that informs even his most fantastic dinosaur paintings. In Columbus, Hawkins held an assortment of unskilled jobs, drove a truck, and even ran a small brothel. He was married twice and claimed to have fathered some twenty children. Although Hawkins was drawing and selling his work as early as the 1930s, he did not begin painting in the style for which he is best known until the mid-to late 1970s. He worked almost without letup thereafter, in spite of illness and advancing age. At first, Hawkins used inexpensive and readily available materials: semi-gloss and enamel paints in primary colors tossed out by a local hardware store, and a single blunt brush. Later, when he could afford it, he painted on Masonite, which he preferred because it didn't “suck up the paint” like cardboard or plywood. Sometimes he dripped paint or let it flow across the surface as he tilted it so he could, as he put it, “watch the painting make itself.” He often painted elaborate borders around his pictures and attached such materials as wood, gravel, newspaper photos, or found objects. Hawkins suffered a stroke in 1989, from which he only partly recovered, and he died several months later, in 1990. He once summed up his aspirations as an artist by remarking, “You have to do something wonderful, so people know who you are.” - - - - - RICCO/MARESCA was founded in 1979 on Broome Street in New York?€™s then-emerging SoHo gallery district. The gallery relocated to TriBeCa in the 1980s, then later moved to Wooster Street in SoHo, which by then had become a well-developed center of contemporary-art galleries. In 1997, Ricco/Maresca became one of the first galleries to become established in the new Chelsea art district. The gallery is currently located at 529 West 20th Street. Following in the footsteps of the legendary New York dealer Sidney Janis, Ricco/Maresca has championed and showcased the art of self-taught masters working outside the art-historical mainstream. The gallery focuses both on significant contemporary art in various media and on historically important American art of the 20th century. Over a period of 25 years, with publishing partners that have included Alfred A. Knopf, Bulfinch Press, Little, Brown and Company, and Pomegranate Press, among others, Ricco/Maresca has produced books that have helped blur the lines that traditionally have separated conventional art-historical categories and the vernacular-art category. The gallery is a participant in the Armory Show, New York; Art Chicago; Scope New York; Scope Miami; AIPAD and the PINTA Modern and Contemporary Latin-American Art Show, New York. The gallery works closely with major museums and collectors, and offers services that range from collection management to installation design and conservation.

Creator:
William L. Hawkins (1895-1990, American)
Creation Year:
1984
Dimensions:
Height: 39 in (99.06 cm)Width: 32 in (81.28 cm)
Condition:
Framed.
Gallery Location:
New York, NY
Reference Number:
Seller: WH 0361stDibs: G13031653423

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