BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — Thornton Willis, an artist whose abstract paintings were considered by many to be among the best of his generation, died last month at his home in New York City. He was 89.
Willis, who spent his formative years in Alabama and studied at its two state universities, died on June 15 in Manhattan, but his obituary was just recently published in The New York Times.
Born in Pensacola, Florida, Willis and his family frequently moved in his early years, spending a long stint in Montgomery, Alabama before moving back to Pensacola to finish high school. However, after a short stint in the Marines, Willis went back to Alabama for college, initially attending Auburn University as an architecture major before dedicating himself full-time to his art.
By 1964, Willis was studying art as a graduate student at the University of Alabama, where he studied under Melville Price. He graduated with a master’s degree in studio art in 1966. In his own writings, Willis talked about how he took part in the Selma-to-Montgomery march of 1965 over civil rights.
In 1967, Willis moved to New York to teach at Wagner College. It was in New York that Willis’ art began to fully take shape, joining the New York School movement of art taking hold in the city. Outside of a brief time he taught at Louisiana State University, New York was Willis’ base for years.
Among his best-known works are his “Slat” series which were featured between 1967 and 1973. Many of his works have been featured in the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
Bill Dooley, director of the Sarah Moody Gallery of Art at UA, said Willis’ passion for art was on full display in every part of both his work and his life.
“The manner in which Thornton engaged with his materials, translating his distilled and clarified ideas into visual form – often through the use of intentional surfaces, brilliant color, alluring edges, and painted shape – left a lasting impression on me,” Dooley wrote in a statement. “It was clear that Thornton was a perpetual explorer through his art, with each series representing a new discovery and each painting serving as a unique visual theorem.”
Willis’ funeral was held June 22 in Greenwich Village.
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