The Arts Center at Duck Creek is pleased to present William King: Sculpture in the John Little Barn, opening on Saturday, June 11, and on view through July 10, 2022. A reception for the artist will be held from 4-6 pm on Sunday, June 12.

A major figure in contemporary American sculpture, Bill King was a consistent presence in both the New York and East End arts communities for over six decades. A true vanguard, King bucked the trend of abstract expressionism, creating figurative works that for generations have been embraced for their unique humor and energy. This exhibit will feature King’s carved wood and polychrome sculptures, which display the artist’s unique ability to depict humanity with great authenticity.

“The sculpture of William King is a sculpture of comic gesture. It is sculpture that choreographs a scenario of sociability, of conscious affections and unavowed pretensions, transforming the world of observed manners and unacknowledged motives into mimelike structures of comic revelation. Often very funny, sometimes acerbic, frequently satiric and touching at the same time, it is sculpture that draws from the vast repertory of socialized human gesture a very personal vocabulary of contemporary sculptural forms…”

— Hilton Kramer, The Age of the Avant-Garde: An Art Chronicle of 1956-1972, 1973

William King (1925 - 2015) was born in Jacksonville, Florida, 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. He spent much time abroad, taught at the Brooklyn Museum Art School, and UC Berkeley, amongst other schools. He served as the President of the National Academy of Design, 1994-1998 and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2003.

One of his earliest solo exhibitions was with the Alan Gallery, New York in 1954, and he continued to show in New York City through 2014. He received awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts Individual Artist Grant, the San Francisco Arts Commission Award for Outstanding Achievement in Sculpture, and Honorary Doctorates from the San Francisco Art Institute, the California College of Arts and Crafts, and the Corcoran School of Art, Washington D.C..
William King lived with his wife, the painter Connie Fox, in East Hampton, New York, for 33 years; he died in 2015.

View William King’s 2014 show at Duck Creek here: https://www.duckcreekarts.org/2014

If you are interested in acquiring a work by William King, please conatct Scott Chaskey: schaskey@gmail.com

further information about this exhibition, contact: Jess Frost, duck@duckcreekarts.org