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July Issue 2003
Hampton III Gallery in Greenville, SC, Features Third Solo Exhibition of Works by the Late William Halsey
Hampton III Gallery
in Greenville, SC, is featuring a solo exhibition of works entitled,
William Halsey: Three Decades, by Charlestonian William
Halsey (1915-1999). The show runs through Aug. 9, 2003. This is
the gallery's third solo exhibition of William Halsey's work.
Halsey traveled the world, bringing back the memories of his encounters and mingling them with the truths of his birthplace. The canvases speak in Halsey words, his story. Carolina Cobb writes, "Halsey chose to remain in his hometown for over sixty years of his artistic career. During this time he produced a massive amount of work, inspired by his local surroundings, his interests in primitive cultures, and his responses to creative isolation. Although his career and lifestyle were uncommon to native Charlestonians, Halsey's attitude and approach to producing art was consistent with critical opinions on how an artist should work. Clement Greenberg once wrote, 'The American artist has to embrace and content himself, almost, with isolation if he is to give the most honesty, seriousness, and ambition to his work. Isolation is, so to speak, the natural condition of high art in American.'" Barbara Rose, Art Since 1900 (New York; Praeger, 1975, 4.)
Three decades are represented in this exhibit of 22 paintings. An example from the 70's is 2 Chairs in Sunlight, 1972. The orange-reds, earthy browns and icy blues mix with the grainy textures to give the surface a crust. Halsey loved his materials. From the simple paper outline of his chair to the rags that cleaned his tools, he saw beauty in it all. He once said, "Of recent years most of my work has started with an involvement with materials - paper, cloth, paint, wood, metal, marble dust, sand; often scraps, left-overs, worn, used, neglected. I particularly like things that have a past: torn fragments of rejected paintings, old clothes, paint rags, burlap, textiles with faded patterns, the detritus of our civilization; trash that when cherished can turn into something else. ...I could be called a materialist."
From the 80's is Moroccan Fragments,
the largest work in the show at 72 x 48 inches. This painting
was featured in 1989 in the exhibition, William Halsey and
Corrie McCallum: Then and Now, at the Gibbes Museum of Art
in Charleston, SC. In the exhibition catalog Roberta Kefalos writes,
"Moroccan Fragment 1982, ...demonstrates how Halsey's
work is inspired by a subjective synthesis of impression; in this
example an earthy palette of dark reds, purple and greens relate
to Moroccan weavings, under which he has inscribed a pattern of
lines that are reminiscent of hieroglyphics on Mayan ruins and
stone carvings. Starting with a range of four to five colors and
a gessoed surface which gives texture and a degree of control
for the applied paint, Halsey follows an intuitive, spontaneous
creative approach in pouring, blending, and manipulating color
areas in varying depth and intensity and articulating the composition
with an overall spiky, looping handwriting of his imagination."
From the 90's, Forbidden Fruit, 1994, bursts forth with
a myriad of color. Bold lines create form; color upon color reaches
forward. Movement plays out in every stroke.
A surprise element in the show is a small 1931 drawing of two figures in the streets of Charleston. This work, on loan from a private collection, was completed when Halsey was only 16, a time when he was under the influence of Elizabeth O'Neill Verner.
"In her groundbreaking project, The Charleston Renaissance, Curator Martha R. Severens... positioned Halsey as the singular link between Charleston's cultural renewal and the subsequent dawning of a new era for the arts across the state. ...Halsey almost single-handedly guarded the modernist flame for years here before the rest of the state was finally drawn to its light. For this alone we should be grateful, but there is one more thing - in the process he became one of the finest painters in the country," said Tom Styron, Director, Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC, in his introduction in the exhibition catalog William Halsey, 1999.
For more information check our SC Commercial Gallery listing, call the gallery at 864/268-2771 or e-mail at (hampton3gallery@mindspring.com).
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