Thornton Willis started painting and studying in Alabama before contributing to the New York School of painting since 1969. He was part of “the Third Generation of American Abstract Expressionists.”
Willis died June 15 at age 89.
The Birmingham Museum of Art owns one of his valuable paintings.
His work encompasses abstract expressionism, lyrical abstraction, process art, postminimalism, Biomorphic Cubism (a term Willis coined), and color field. He was a member of the American Abstract Artists.
Thornton Willis's father, Willard Willis, was an evangelical preacher in the Churches of Christ. Thornton spent his formative years in Montgomery but graduated from Tate High School in Pensacola.
After three years in the Marine Corps, Willis studied under the G.I. Bill at Auburn University for one year. He transferred to the University of Southern Mississippi, where he graduated in 1962.
In the summer of 1964, he enrolled at the University of Alabama for graduate studies, where he received a teaching assistantship and earned his master's degree in 1966.
While at the University of Alabama, he befriended Alabama and New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath, met visiting artist Theodoros Stamos, and studied painting with Melville Price, a painter who had exhibited in New York City. During his time in Tuscaloosa, Willis also participated in the Civil Rights Movement, including the march from Selma to Montgomery, led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Birmingham attorney Jack Drake was a student at the University of Alabama during the time Willis was there. Drake, who is also an art collector and critic, said Willis “was an important painter of his generation.”
Throughout his painting studies in Alabama, Willis became influenced by the tenets of Abstract Expressionism, the New York School of painting, and Second Generation abstract painters.
In 1967, Willis accepted a teaching position at Wagner College on Staten Island and moved to New York City. He established his first studio in the Chelsea district of Manhattan. In 1968, he had his first one-person show at the Henri Gallery in Washington, DC.
He explored the relationship between structure and gesture, employing techniques such as layering of paint and a direct approach to painting, while emphasizing line, shape, and color. His work is renowned for its bold structural forms and the interplay between figure and ground, as well as surface and depth.
Willis's prominent series of paintings includes:
- Slats
- Wedges
- Zig-Zags
- Triangles
- Prismatics
- Lattices
- Cityscapes
- Steps
Willis's work has been exhibited widely in both the United States and Europe and is included in the permanent collections of major museums such as:
- The Museum of Modern Art, New York
- The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
- The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
- The Birmingham Museum of Art
"I believe that it is important for the artist, painter, poet, dancer, etc. to keep in mind that it is the art that drives the art world and not the other way around. Artists and other people of intelligence have the power to bring deeper content to our culture." — Thornton Willis
Jim ‘Zig’ Zeigler’s beat is the colorful and positive about Alabama -- her people, places, events, groups and prominent deaths. He is a former Alabama Public Service Commissioner and State Auditor. You can reach him for comments at [email protected].
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