Bill Scott (b. 1956)
Bill Scott’s vibrant paintings lie within the aesthetic continuum of the Philadelphia colorist tradition, passed on to Scott and his contemporaries through mentors such as painters Quita Brodhead and Jane Piper, who were themselves students of Arthur B. Carles, the pioneer of Philadelphia modernism. Also a student of the globally recognized abstractionist Joan Mitchell, Scott fuses his local artistic heritage together with the raw energy embedded in her abstractions. It is this unique combination of influences—including abstract compositions, saturated color, calligraphic line, large scale, and pure vitality—that drive Scott’s paintings and instill them with expressive spirit.
The underlying geometry of brilliantly colored patchworks in Scott’s paintings are the foundation of his compositions. Dark, sinuous lines overlay and weave together these blocks of color, uniting the pictorial elements underneath. This compositional device relates to Scott’s work in printmaking; he notes, “the authority of the printed etched line, more than anything else, has impacted on my recent paintings.” At the same time that printmaking methods inform his paintings, the brilliant passages of color suggest the texture of collage. In Scott’s work, the harmony created by calligraphic lines and a vivid palette defines the surfaces of his canvases and infuses the images with animation and depth.
Born in Bryn Mawr and raised in Haverford, Scott studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1974 to 1979. Scott’s continuity and legacy within the Philadelphia tradition, united with his own unique process and approach to composition and form, have been recognized by colleagues, critics and collectors. He has exhibited widely for the past twenty years at museum venues including Swarthmore College, Hollins University, the State Museum of Pennsylvania, and the University of Delaware. In addition to painting and printmaking, Scott is an accomplished writer on art. He contributes regularly to Art in America and has written for exhibition catalogues of the National Gallery of Art and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
His work was accepted to the National Academy Museum’s 179th Annual exhibition in 2004, where it won the Adolph and Clara Obrig Prize. Other major public collections that include Scott’s work include the Delaware Art Museum, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Butler Institute of American Art, and the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute Museum of Art.
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