THORNTON WILLIS
Lance Esplund on Willis
"With each new surprising series, Willis's paintings get better and better--more direct, dynamic, and hardboiled. And this powerful new grouping which evolved out of (earlier) interlocking geometries...reminds us that he works not just in series, but cyclically.
Willis deals in the fusion of opposites: translucency and opacity; expansion and contraction; open and closed; tension and release. His paintings explore beginnings, first steps, and the building blocks of picture-making--the progression of point to line to plane; and of movement arrested in the plane...and whole planes of scratchy color churn with a flurry of brushwork, reminding us that flat color--vibrating, pulsing--needn't sit there inactively."
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2013 Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York, NY
2012 Sarah Moody Gallery, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL
2011 Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York, NY; catalogue essay Lance Esplund, with documentary film by Michael Feldman and Vered Lieb
2010 Rider University, Lawrenceville, NJ
2009 Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York, NY; catalogue essay by James Panero; with documentary film by Michael Feldman
2007 Sideshow Gallery, New York, NY
2006 Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York, NY
2005 “Raising the Bar: James Little & Thornton Willis”, Sideshow Gallery,Brooklyn, NY
1993 Andre Zarre Gallery, New York, NY
1990 Twining Gallery, New York, NY
1988 Gallerie Nordenhake, Stockholm, Sweden Pensacola Museum of Fine Art, Pensacola, FL
1986 Oscarsson-Siegeltuch, New York, NY Millerville University Gallery, Millerville, PA
1985 Gloria Luria Gallery, Miami, FL C.W. Woods Gallery, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS
1984 Oscarsson Hood Gallery, New York, NY
1983 Gallerie Nordenhake, Malmo, Sweden Engstrom Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden
1982 Nina
Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo, NY Galerie Gonet, Lausanne, Switzerland
Eason Gallery, Santa Fe, NM Phoenix Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA
1981 Marianne Deson Gallery, Chicago, IL Oscarsson Hood Gallery, New York, NY
1980 Oscarsson Hood Gallery, New York, NY Gallerie Nordenhake, Malmo, Sweden
1979 55 Mercer Street Gallery, New York, NY
1971 New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA
1970 Simonne Stern Gallery, New Orleans, LA
1970 Paley and Lowe, New York, NY
1967-8 Henri Gallery, Washington, D.C.
SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Museum of Modern Art, MOMA New York, NY
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C
Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT.
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo,
NY Denver Museum of Fine Arts, Denver, CO
Weatherspoon Art Gallery, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, NC
Museum of Art, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, Louisiana
Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY
Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University
The Sarah Moody Gallery of Art, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL
The Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AR
Museum of Broadcasting, William Paley gift, NYC
Musee A La Chaux-de-fonds, Switzerland
Malmo Museum of Fine Art, Kunsthalle, Malmo, Sweden
The Power Institute of Fine Arts, Sidney, Australia
Chase Manhattan Collection, New York City
Southeast Banking Corporation, Miami, FL and Southwest,Los Angeles, CA
The High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
Illinois University Museum, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL
Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Oklahoma City, OK
Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR
Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC
South Dakota Art Museum, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, TN
Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Utah State University, Logan UT
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV
Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI
Rider University, Lawrenceville, NJ
Hospital Corporation of North America, Nashville, TE
Inter-Metro Industries Corporation, Princeton, NJ
Frito-Lay Corporation, Dallas,
The Prudential Insurance Company of America, Boston MA
The Marine Midland Bank Collection, Rochester, NY
The Edward Albee Foundation, NY
Georgetown College, Georgetown, KY
Wagner College, University Collection, Staten Island, NYC
Rich Products Corporation, Buffalo, NY
Commodities Corporation, Princeton, NJ
The Erling Neby Collection, Hovikodden, Norway
HONORS AND AWARDS
2001 The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Painting Fellowship
1991 Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Fellowship
1984 National Endowment for the Arts, Printmaking Fellowship
1980 National Endowment for the Arts, Painting Fellowship
1979 John Simon Guggenheim M
