About the artist:

Born Pensacola, Florida 1936. Resides in New York City 1967 Education 1966University of Alabama, MFA 1962University of Southern Mississippi BS Solo Exhibitions 2013Elizabeth Harris Gallery, NYC 2012Sarah Moody Gallery, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 2011Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York, NY; cat. essay Lance Esplund 2009Rider University, Lawrenceville, NJ 2009Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York, NY; catalogue essay by James Panero; with documentary film by Michael Feldman 2009Sideshow Gallery, New York, NY 2006 Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York, NY 1993Andre Zarre Gallery, New York, NY 1990Twining Gallery, New York, NY 1988Gallerie Nordenhake, Stockholm, Sweden Pensacola Museum of Fine Art, Pensacola, FL 1986Oscarsson-Siegeltuch, New York, NY Millerville University Gallery, Millerville, PA 1985Gloria Luria Gallery, Miami, FL C.W. Woods Gallery, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS 1984Oscarsson Hood Gallery, New York, NY 1983Gallerie Nordenhake, Malmo, Sweden Engstrom Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden 1982Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo, NY Galerie Gonet, Lausanne, Switzerland Eason Gallery, Santa Fe, NM Phoenix Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA 1981Marianne Deson Gallery, Chicago, IL Oscarsson Hood Gallery, New York, NY 1980Oscarsson Hood Gallery, New York, NY Gallerie Nordenhake, Malmo, Sweden 197955 Mercer Street Gallery, New York, NY 1971New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA 1970Simonne Stern Gallery, New Orleans, LA 1970Paley and Lowe, New York, NY 1967-8Henri Gallery, Washington, D.C.Two Person Exhibitions 2001“Raising the Bar: James Little & Thornton Willis”, Sideshow Gallery, Brooklyn, NY Selected Group Exhibitions 2013"Works of the Jenney Archive", Gagosian Gallery, Madison Avenue, NY 2011“Works on Paper” Janet Kurnatowski Gallery, NY, NY 2011“It’s All Good/Apocalypse Now” Sideshow Gallery, New York, NY 2010“Phenomenon” Holland Tunnel Gallery, Paris, Greece & NY, NY 2010“It’s a Wonderful 10th” Sideshow Gallery, New York, NY 2009-10“Color-Time-Space” Lohin Geduld Gallery, New York, NY; Janet Kurnitowski Gallery New York, NY; Rosenberg Gallery, Hofstra University, Hempstead NY cat. Available, traveling show 2009“Fifty Works for Fifty States: The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection” Milwaukee Arts Museum, Milwaukee, WI 2009“Personal Geometry” Lori Bookstein Fine Art, New York, NY 2008“Shape Shifters”, A.D. Gallery University of North Carolina at Pembroke curated by James Biederman. “Shape Shifters” New York Painters, Sideshow Gallery Williamsburg, NY 2008“In Context: The Language of Abstraction Continues”, Henry St. Settlement 2008Elizabeth Harris Gallery, Summer Group Show New York NY 2008“Tribute to Esphyr Slobodinka” The Painting Center, New York, NY 2008Union League, NYC, Auction (w/cat) for The New Criterion 2007St. Joseph University, NJ American Abstract Artist’s Exhibition; E. Harris Gallery, NYC The Holland Tunnel Gallery, Paros Greece 2006“Neoplastic Redux”, Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York, NY 2006, 08, 11“New Criterion Benefit Auction”,Union League Club, New York, NY “The War is Over” Sideshow Gallery, New York NY 2005“Optica Simulations” The Yellow Bird Gallery, Newburgh, NY 2003The Spike Gallery, Green Chimney’s Auction & Benefit, New York, NY 2002“Recent Acquisitions”, The Sarah Moody Gallery of Art, U. of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, “Paintings”, The Space, New York, NY 2001“New York Artists”, Emily Lowe Gallery, Hofstra Museum, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY, curated by James Little; “Abstraction and Immanence”, Hunter College, NYC, curated by Vincent Longo 2000Musee Cantonal Des Beaux-Arts DeLausanne, Switzerland R.Zaug“ American Abstract Artists, 1930-2000”, Hillwood Art Museum, NYC 1999“The Art of Absolute Desire”, Gershwin Hotel, NY, curated by James Little “The Power of Drawing”, Westbeth Gallery, New York, NY 1998“Absolut Secret”, David McKee Gallery, New York, NY “Abstract Index”, Condesco/Lawler Gallery, New York, NY, curated By Vincent Longo 1997“Abstract Tendencies”, Rider College Gallery, Lawrenceville, NJ, Curated by D. Rosenthal, (catalog Rider University Press) 1996“New York – Abstract”, New York Arts Magazine,NYC curator James Little 1993“Small Paintings: Big Issues”, Douglas Drake Gallery, New York, NY “The Tradition”, Anita Shapolsky Gallery, New York, NY 1991“Abstract Paintings: the 90s”, Andre Emmerich Gallery, New York, NY Curated by Barbara Rose 1988 American Academy & Institute of Arts & Letters, New York, NY “Dorothy Diener, Peter Voulkos, Thornton Willis”, Twining Gallery, New York, NY Oscarsson-Seigeltuch Gallery, Inaugural show, New York, NY 1985Rose Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 1985“Affair of the Heart”, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY “Color Abstraction in the 80s”, Baruch College, New York, NY Curated by Katherine Crum “Abstract/Issues”, Tibor de Nagy, New York, NY, curated by Steven Madoff “Current Six: New Abstraction”, Milwaukee Museum of Art, Milwaukee, WI, curated by G. Nordland 1984“Ten Years of Contemporary Art”, G.E. Corporation, Fairfield, CT, circulated by MOMA “An International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture”, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, curated by Kynaston McShine, (catalog) inaugural exhibition 1983“ARS 83”, Museum of Fine Art, Helsinki, Finland; Foster Goldstrom Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA 1982Galerie Numaga, Neuchatel, Switzerland 1981Galerie Arneson, Copenhagen, Denmark “New Art II: Surfaces/Textures”, The Museum of Modern Art, NY, NY “Painting Up Front”, Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, curated by Thomas Leavitt (catalog) “New Directions: A Corporate Collection”, Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, (artists selected by Sam Hunter) “New York, Paper Works Show” Nina Freudenheim Gallery,Buffalo,NY 1980“Seven Young Americans”, Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, NY “Color Painting”, Gallery Engstrom, Stockholm, Sweden 1979“American Painting: The Eighties”, Grey Art Gallery, New York, NY, curated by Barbara Rose Selected Bibliograpy 2012Thomas B. Harrison, ‘Southern Abstraction’, Mobile Press Register, June 01, 2012 2011James Panero “Gallery Chronicle” The New Criterion, Vol. 29, No.6,p.57 2009Lilly Wei, “Thornton Willis at Elizabeth Harris” Exhibition Reviews, “Art in America” Sept. 2009 #08 page 149 2009Thornton Willis, Melville Price: Works from the Sixties, Tom McCormick Gallery, Copyright 2009, Color Reproduction, essay, pp. 14-15 2009James Panero, Pilgrim’s Process, Catalogue Essay, Thornton Willis: The Lattice Paintings, March 2009 2008Lance Esplund, “The Met’s Memorable Year”, The New York Sun, Thursday, Jan. 3, 2008, Arts & Letters, page 21 2007 James Panero, Critics Notebook, “ Comeback Kid”, Art & Antiques, Vol. xxx, No. 12, pp. 110-114 color repros. Lance Esplund, “A Show of Painterly Swagger”, The New York Sun, Nov. 8, 2007, Vol. 123, No. 146, p 22 James Panero, Gallery Chronicle, The New Criterion, Vol 26, No. 3 pp. 61-62, September Jed Perl, “How The Art World Lost its Mind to Money: Laissez-Faire Aesthetics,” The New Republic, Feb 5, 2007 2006John Goodrich, Gallery Going “Black & White and Big All Over”, The New York Sun, December 14, 2006 Channing Joseph, Arts & Letters, “Geometry In Color,” New York Sun, Making a Quantum Comeback” Tues. December 19, 2006 page 13 2005Naves, Mario, “A Shared Aesthetic and Goal, Raising the Bar at the Sideshow”, New York Observer, April 18, p 8 Maine, Stephen, “Dateline Brooklyn, Artnet, April La Rocca, Ben, “Thornton Willis and James Little”, The Brooklyn Rail, April Lieb, Vered, “Thornton Willis and James Little: Raising the Bar”, N.Y Arts Magazine, Vol. 10, No 3/4, p71, March/April Lieb, Vered, “Thornton Willis and James Little”, Abstract Art on Line April 2005Panero, James, “Gallery Chronicles”, The New Criterion, May, Vol 23, no 9, p50 2003Perl, Jed, “On Art: Unity and Variety”, The New Republic, Vol. 228, No 3, Issue 4593, Jan. 27 Kaufman, Leslie, “The Lost Legacy of Stewart Hitch”, The New York Times, The City, Section 14, Feb.2 2001Morgan, Robert C., “Painted in New York City: The Presence of the Past" catalog essay published by Hofstra University for “Painted In New York City”, Jan. 1999Lieb, Vered, “The Art of Absolute Desire”, N.Y. Arts Magazine, Vol. 4, No. 8, pp50-1 1997Rosenthal, Deborah, “Abstract Tendencies”, Rider University Press 1994Scott, Sue, “Reviews: New York”, ARTnews, Feb., p143 Lloyd W., Ann “Review of Exhibitions”, Art in America, May p112 1993Perl, Jed, “Code Name Painting” The New Criterion, Dec., Vol.12 No 4 1986Lieb, Vered, “Objective Spirit: Thornton Willis”, Arts Magazine, Nov. 1985Heartney, Eleanor, “Thornton Willis as Oscarsson Hood”, ARTnews, Gaugh, Harry T., “Franz Kline: The Man and the Myth”, ARTnews, Dec. 1984Carrier, David, “Betwixt and Between Illusion and Literality: Thornton Willis’ Recent Paintings”, p194, Nov. Rosenthal, Deborah, “First Underground Show,” Art in America, Nov., p157-8 1983Madoff, Steven, “Looking for Thornton Willis: A Treatise”, Arts Magazine, March, cover and pp16-118 1981Murray, Jesse, Flash Art, Jan. Masheck, Joseph, “Abstract Identity: Thornton Willis”, Oct., pp126-131, reproductions pp. 126, 129, 130 1980Cornu, Daniel, “La Peinture Abstraite en Question”, Tribune De Geneve, Dec. 16, 1980, p27 Parks, Addison, Arts Magazine, Dec., p53 Ratcliff, Carter, “55 Mercer St. Show”, Art in America, March, p116 Frackman, Noel, “The Paintings of Thornton Willis”, Arts Magazine, Nov., pp58-60 1979Feldman, Anita, “Space and Subjectivity”, Artforum, Sept., pp49-53 Boyce, David, “Interview with Thornton Willis”, Arts Magazine, Nov., Books Tom Armstrong, A Singular Vision: Architecture Art Landscape, Copyright 2011, Library of Congress Catalogue Card #978-1-59372-043-8 Frontispiece pp.1, 207 Printed by Quantuck Lane Press, NY, Distributed by W.W. Norton and Company, NY Carrier, David, “The Aesthete in the City; The Philosophy and Practice of American Abstract Painting in the 1980s,” The Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park Pennsylvania, 1994, Chapters 10 (p188) and 13 (p 225) Clayton, Alec, As If Art Matters: Reviews and Commentary, Clayton Works, Olympia, WA. copyright 2004, cover image, “Thornton Willis,” pp33-5 Belamy, Peter, The Artists Project: Portrait of the Real Art World: New York Artists 1981-1990, introduction by Neil Printz, IN Publishing, NY, NY, 1991 Masheck, Joseph, “Historical Present: Essays of the 1970s,” Contemporary American Art Critics, No. 3, edited by Donald Kuspit, UMI Research Press, Michigan, 1984, Chapter 22, pp249-257, “Thornton Willis and Abstract Identity” Honors and Awards 2004Southern Mississippi College of Arts and Letters, Wall of Fame 2001The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Painting Fellowship 1991Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Fellowship 1984National Endowment for the Arts, Printmaking Fellowship 1980National Endowment for the Arts, Painting Fellowship 1979John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Painting Fellowship