William Halsey was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1915.
At a young age, his artistic talent and interest was made evident
to family and teachers, who encouraged him to pursue drawing and
painting in the traditional styles of local Charleston artists.
Halsey's inspiration for art, however, found in the colors, textures,
and ruins of his home town, did not relate to realistic studies
of picturesque Charleston street scenes. Instead, his interests
demanded a close study of color theory, geometry, and artistic
media.
Upon leaving Charleston in 1935 for the Boston Museum School,
Halsey discovered new techniques and artistic influences. He spent
countless hours in the Boston Museum, studying the works of Matisse,
Dufy, and Bonnard, artists who would inspire the styles of his
early works.(1) In Boston, he learned academic principles
and found support from teachers and the progressive art market.
Here, he began an artistic career that would continue for over
sixty years. Chapter One of this thesis recounts the development
of Halsey's art education, from his first drawing lessons in Charleston,
through his experiences at the Boston Museum School and his fellowship
studies in Mexico. These pages explain how the young Charleston
artist acquired an interest in modern art and subsequently broke
free of the "prevailing influences of the Old Charleston
Picturesque style of painting."(2) His life-long
determination and devotion to pursuing a career as an artist is
evident in the early statements and letters included in this chapter,
along with explanations of the development of his personal style,
and his discovery of important subjects and interests.
Chapter Two addresses the best-documented decade of Halsey's career:
the 1950s. From 1948 to 1960, Halsey exhibited his work regularly
in New York and completed several commissions for local and national
synagogues, buildings, and publications. The reviews of these
exhibitions, and the historical accounts of his commissions and
activities of the time, provide necessary insight into Halsey's
participation in the larger art trade outside the American South.
This chapter presents an extensive chronology of Halsey's role
in the most critical period of American art history: the development
of Abstract Expressionism. Furthermore, it addresses the stylistic
developments and changes that emerged in Halsey's work over the
decade, and assesses his primary interests and influences. This
chapter lays the foundation of dates, lists of works, and important
events of Halsey's career in the 1950s.
Chapter Three recounts the explosive development of Abstract Expressionism
in New York in the 1940s and 1950s. Tracing the origins of the
movement through its collapse in the early 1960s, this background
information is organized to show how Halsey's career path and
involvement in art paralleled many of the mainstream artists'
developments. Assessing the limited but established canon of Abstract
Expressionism, this chapter employs arguments that support broadening
the academic scope of this art movement to include the excluded
artists--namely women, African-Americans, and homosexuals. This
theory proposes that the accepted historical record of Abstract
Expressionism (which revolves around a select group of ten to
fifteen white males who resided in New York in the 1940s and worked
with similar styles and techniques) omits painters from other
backgrounds. Chapter 3 suggests that William Halsey, a Southern
painter bound to his native region, could also be included in
the group of participating artists who did not meet the historians'
established criteria for acceptance in the Abstract Expressionist
canon. Furthermore, the chapter explores the effects of exclusion,
arguing that because artists were omitted from art history in
the 1950s, their names and works were relatively forgotten by
the mainstream art trade. Consequently, their later works and
developments in art have also been ignored. The conclusion of
this thesis suggests that if artists like Halsey who continued
working in isolation away from art markets and media attention
can be rediscovered, then Abstract Expressionism can be more fully
understood in its broadest American context.
(1) William Halsey and Corrie McCallum, interview by Liza Kirwin (27 October 1986, Oral History Interview for the Archives of American Art, Washington, DC).
(2) Morris.
Contacts:
David Halsey 843-813-7542 dhalsey917@comcast.net
Paige Halsey Slade 904-223-8418 PSlade@alumnae.brynmawr.edu
Louise McCallum Halsey 501-650-5090 louisemhalsey@gmail.com or at www.louisehalsey.com
Copyright© 1999-2012 by the Halsey McCallum Foundation.
Any copy of information or photos is strictly prohibited.