William L. Hawkins: An Imaginative Geography

The first large-scale survey of the important self-taught artist's work in 20 years, presenting approximately sixty of Hawkins's lively paintings, drawings, and sculpture.Although he has long held a place in the forefront of twentieth-century self-taught artists, the Ohio painter William Lawrence Hawkins has recently received less than his fair share of attention. This monograph will introduce Hawkins's exuberant paintings to a wider audience at a time when more and more general museums are recognizing the powerful appeal of America's self-taught artists. While focusing on the artist's most aesthetically successful, confident, and characteristic works, the book will bring special attention to his use of space, his collage practice, and his work in series, of which his nine Last Suppers is perhaps the most extensive example.Drawn from important public and private collections across the United States, the monograph will include approximately fifty of Hawkins's most important paintings, both well-known pieces and others rarely seen and it will cover all of Hawkins's favorite subject matter, including cityscapes, landscapes, exotic places, animals, current events, historic scenes, and religious scenes. It will also include a very rare assembled sculpture and a selection of his large body of drawings.

“The very definition of a self-taught artist, he instictively understood the role of the outlandish, cast-off, and commonplace in the creation of the mythic.”

There is this sense, in looking at Hawkins's bold and humorous paintings, of returning to something one has always known.-- "Hyperallergic"
--Alex Mobilio "Bookforum"

Pop culture and visionary fantasy mix freely in the paintings of this self-taught innovator Although he has long enjoyed a prominent place in the canon of self-taught artists, the Ohio painter William Lawrence Hawkins (1895-1990) has received less than his fair share of attention in recent times. This monograph--the first in 20 years--introduces Hawkins's exuberant paintings to a wider audience at a time when more and more general museums are recognizing the powerful appeal of America's self-taught artists. Focusing on the artist's most aesthetically successful, confident and characteristic works, it brings special attention to his use of space, his collage practice and his work in series, of which his nine Last Suppers are perhaps the most extensive example. Drawn from important public and private collections across the United States, William L. Hawkins: An Imaginative Geography includes approximately 50 of Hawkins's most important paintings, both well-known pieces and others rarely seen. All of Hawkins's favorite subjects are covered here, including cityscapes, landscapes, exotic places, animals, current events, historic scenes and religious scenes. Also reproduced are a rarely seen assemblage and a selection from his large oeuvre of drawings.

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