early Oils
1952 — 1957
After graduating from Pratt Art Institute in 1949, Willard continued his studies at the Art Students League in Manhattan for an additional two years. During this time, he began his journey away from a traditional style of portraiture and illustration, becoming more and more abstract in his vision. He continued to paint portraits, but the subjects became more fractured and angular, the palette bolder and more interpretive, the brush strokes more energetic. He also turned to trees for their endless compositional variety, emphasizing their fractured angularity.
He had two solo Manhattan exhibits of this early work at the Little Studio, a Madison Avenue art gallery, in 1952 and 1957. Some of the 1957 paintings are in these photographs below. They were documented in black and white at the time, but there are a few other color images here from that period, which show the vibrancy of his palette.
One reviewer said, "In semi-abstract oils and ceramics at the Little Studio, 673 Madison Avenue, Willard Bond dramatizes landscape briskly, wielding paint with the palette knife, and composing angular designs." — NY Times, Stuart Preston, Gallery Round-Up, Nov. 16, 1957.
Another reviewer said, "Compared to his first exhibition, Bond has matured immeasurably in his brushwork ... It would seem that he is now verging toward a broader style which may lead him into mural painting." — The Spokesman Review, New York Letter, Eleanor Shaw, December 1, 1957.
"Willard Bond's figures and outdoor scenes at the Little Studio are painted so exclusively according to the architecture of their planes that one might be excused for thinking him a semi-abstract sculptor. They come to life in slabs of heavy chalky medium (Bond is indifferent if not hostile to color). They are forceful and they have style." — NY Times, Willard Bond and Miriam Svet Also have One-Man Shows, October 11, 1952.
His interest in the artistic and compositional possibilities of the tree developed after two summers spent isolated in the Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forest in Idaho, as a fire spotter, and another four summers spent in the Adirondacks, 1954-1957, as an art instructor at a family resort called Timberland. Decades later, in 1990, he built a studio on his land in the Catskills, and for the last 22 years of his life, he split his time between the city and his beloved forest.
The last image in this set is of the final painting Willard made at 84, in 2011. After decades of being known for his passion as a marine artist, he returned to his roots and painted a tree outside the studio where he lived in the Catskills, covered in winter snow.
Click image to enlarge
