Willie Wayne Young
Born: Dallas, Texas April 16, 1942
(Scroll down to view 2009 short videos, courtesy of the Rebecca Stringer Show, Dallas, TX)
1959-1963 - Dallas Museum of Fine Art High School Scholarship class with Chapman Kelley and, in Kelley's absence, Otis Dozier, Ann Cushing Gantz and Deforrest Judd
1959-1966 - Atelier Chapman Kelley, with Chapman Kelley, including Elaine de Kooning, Hobson Pitman, Ben Kamihira, David De Long, Henri Bert Bartscht, Perrry Nichols, Franklin Drake and Larry Van Haren
Statement about Willie Wayne Young by Chapman Kelley
I have had the privilege of having more than my share of former students who garnered distinguished careers--such as James Havard, Noel Mahaffey and Tom Palmore--with solid national and international acclaim. None, in my humble opinion, however, have been more original, therefore, more important than Willie Wayne Young.
In 1959 the late Jerry Bywaters, director of the Dallas Museum of Fine Art, invited me to teach art at the museum's school. He gave me the choice of which classes to teach. Since I had studied art from the age of eight in San Antonio, Texas, I chose the High School Scholarship and Life Drawing Classes. In the scholarship class, among others, were Willie Wayne Young and Noel Mahaffey. Mahaffey went on to worldwide fame as one of the original Sharp Focus Realists, otherwise known as Photo Realists.
All of these students were invited to participate in the classes at Atelier Chapman Kelley (ACK) which had a resident framer. Therefore, the students had 24-hour access to studio space and the ability to earn income while learning the craft of fine art picture framing. Willie made the most of this.
During those years we had regular instructions from sculptor Heri Bert Bartscht and painter Perry Nichols. We brought in, among others, professional artists to exhibit and teach such as Elaine de Kooning, Hobson Pittman, Ben Kamihira, David DeLong and Alberto Collie. Most artists exhibiting at ACK also critiqued the students' work.
During this time we also had other very serious students such as James Havard, Tom Palmore, Roy Perkinson, and Ross Merrill. For a number of years Perkinson held a position as a world-renowned conservator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Merrill became Chief Conservator at the National Gallery, Washington, D.C. The latter are very fine painters to this day.
Robert M. "Mac" Doty was Chief Curator of the Whitney and covered south and southwest annually to choose artists for the exhibition there. He considered Dallas to be the fourth major center in the visual arts. Affirming the significance of ACK's educational and exhibition effort, he stated that we had a minor renaissance. Also working alongside the youngsters were many prominent citizens who became collectors, supporters and exhibitors themselves.
The point of all this is to share how Willie Wayne Young, an artist to the core, developed his intuitive abilities that enable him to consistently create such sophisticated and personal images. He has steadily done so beginning in 1959 and all the way to the present.
Willie credits Orval Browning, his first teacher, with showing him the way to "shade" as Willie puts it, allowing him to develop his imaginative forms in three dimensional space.
During these five decades, everyone familiar with Willie's work has marveled not only at the magic shapes themselves, but at their relation among themselves and with the energized space they activate between and around.
I believe that the real credit for any artist of Willie's caliber lies in his genius, but the nurturing of that genius was through the exposure and criticism of renowned professional artists rather than professional teachers.
Between 1959 and the time that ACK closed in1983, Willie worked regularly in the gallery and frame shop where he was also exposed, literally "hands on" with works by major French Impressionists, classic 20th century Modernists, Abstract Impressionists, Pop, Op, Minimalists, Photo Realists and such important and immediate innovators as Alberto Collie, who, incidentally, had his first one man exhibition at ACK in 1963.
Is it any wonder that a young dedicated artist, such as Willie, with something original and important to say about that intriguing land between the real world and the obsessive fantasy land has matured with such rare assurance?
Keep on trucking, Willie!
The following narrative was written by Guest Curator Edleeca Thompson on the occasion of the 2008-2009 one-man show of Young's work "The Visionary Art of Willie Young" at the African American Museum, Dallas, Texas:
The Visionary Art of Willie Young
At first glance, you might think that the drawings in this exhibition are sketches for a new online gaming version of Doom™ or the latest SciFi flick. Another inspection provides an opportunity to peek into the world of an artist whose subjects rely on real-world visionary experiences and contexts.
Willie Wayne Young is a Dallas native who began his art education, under the tutelage of Chapman Kelley, while taking classes under a Dallas Museum of Fine Art High School Scholarship between 1959 and 1963. Many professional artists exhibited and taught at the school including Ann Cushing, Deforrest Judd, and Otis Dozier. For the next three years, Willie’s fledgling artistic career began to take shape through exposure to other visiting artists like Elaine de Kooning, Hobson Pittman, Ben Kamihira and David DeLong. Later, Heri Bert Bartscht, Perry Nichols, Franklin Drake, Larry Van Haren, and Octavio Medellin all influenced his development as an artist.
Early in his career, Willie began to turn his focus on the simple observation of his environment. Trees, flowers, cracks in walls, sidewalks, and other anomalies in nature infused his work with a depth of vision that was innovative. His first drawing instructor, Orval Browning, showed Willie how to shade his forms toward a greater degree of three-dimensionality. Thus, the drawings in this exhibition reveal attention to detail and shading and a conscious relationship between form and the surrounding space.
Since 1959, Willie Young has produced drawings that challenge the imagination as well as the planar space in which they reside. They offer a glimpse into a very personal world that beckons a search for meaning in the twig and bone-like forms, fractured landscapes, and dancing acorns that float on the paper’s surface. Some shapes move and twist as if uncomfortable in their space. Others are simply static and closed, commanding attention in their intricate line detail and shading. Yet, other forms quite eloquently, and deliberately, reach out as if trying to communicate on very intimate level with the viewer.
Willie Young’s exhibition history includes: Atelier Chapman Kelley, Dallas, TX; Goldie Paley Gallery at Moore College of Art Philadelphia, PA; Ricco Maresca Gallery, New York, NY; Webb Gallery, Waxahachie, TX; Carl Hammer Gallery, Chicago, IL; New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY; The Newark Museum, Newark, NJ; and the Mason Murer Fine Art Gallery, Atlanta, GA.
The collection of drawings in this exhibition spans 31 years, from 1977 through 2008, and is only a fraction of the total body of work that Willie has been producing every day for the past 50 years.
Special thanks to:
African American Museum · Chapman Kelley · JD Evans Art Studio
This exhibition is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Charles McAdams, Jr., (1937-2008)
whose love and admiration for Willie Young’s drawings provided the inspiration for this exhibition.
Edleeca Thompson, Guest Curator
Press
Aug. 13, 2015 - New York Times, Arts, "'Outsider Art' Under One Roof at Katonah Museum of Art," by Sarah Gold
Sept. 30, 2010 - Dallas Morning News/Farmers Branch blog, "Willie Young exhibit at Manske displays creativity of 'outsider'" by Dianne Solis, accessed September 30. 2010
May - June 2010 -The Senior Voice, "Willie Wayne Young Sketches Between Shoeshine Jobs" by Minnie Payne, page 15, accessed May 10, 2010, read the pdf file here
Dec. 3, 2009 - The Dallas Morning News, The Arts Blog, "Barber shop artist takes another perch at African American Museum", by Dianne Solis, read it here
Nov. 6, 2009 - Dallas Morning News/Farmers Branch blog "Farmers Branch city council honors artist Willie Wayne Young", by Dianne Solis, accessed November 9, 2009, read it here
October 18, 2009 - The Dallas Morning News/Farmers Branch blog, Sunday, "Artist who polishes shoes between sketches gets first big Dallas show", by Dianne Solis, read it here
Current Exhibition
July 19 - Oct. 11, 2015 - Inside the Outside: Five Self-Taught Artists from The William Louis-Dreyfus Foundation
Manske Library, Gallery Spotlight, Farmers Branch, Texas - one man show, The Visionary Art of Willie Young September 26, 2010 through October 29, 2010
Videos
January 2015 - Generosity of Eye (a film about transforming art into education) Co-produced by Julie Louis-Dreyfus (Young's work is at the 41:55 mark)
December 2008 - Rebecca Stringer Show, segments 2-7, videos recorded at the African American Museum, Dallas Texas. Participants were Ann Cushing Gantz, Chapman Kelley, Arthur Koch, Jeanne Koch, Edlecca Thompson, students and teachers of Booker T. Washington High School for the Visual and Performing Arts and Willie Wayne Young.
BLOG SECTIONS
Willie Wayne Young
Born: Dallas, Texas April 16, 1942
(Scroll down to view 2009 short videos, courtesy of the Rebecca Stringer Show, Dallas, TX)
1959-1963 - Dallas Museum of Fine Art High School Scholarship class with Chapman Kelley and, in Kelley's absence, Otis Dozier, Ann Cushing Gantz and Deforrest Judd
1959-1966 - Atelier Chapman Kelley, with Chapman Kelley, including Elaine de Kooning, Hobson Pitman, Ben Kamihira, David De Long, Henri Bert Bartscht, Perrry Nichols, Franklin Drake and Larry Van Haren
Statement about Willie Wayne Young by Chapman Kelley
I have had the privilege of having more than my share of former students who garnered distinguished careers--such as James Havard, Noel Mahaffey and Tom Palmore--with solid national and international acclaim. None, in my humble opinion, however, have been more original, therefore, more important than Willie Wayne Young.
In 1959 the late Jerry Bywaters, director of the Dallas Museum of Fine Art, invited me to teach art at the museum's school. He gave me the choice of which classes to teach. Since I had studied art from the age of eight in San Antonio, Texas, I chose the High School Scholarship and Life Drawing Classes. In the scholarship class, among others, were Willie Wayne Young and Noel Mahaffey. Mahaffey went on to worldwide fame as one of the original Sharp Focus Realists, otherwise known as Photo Realists.
All of these students were invited to participate in the classes at Atelier Chapman Kelley (ACK) which had a resident framer. Therefore, the students had 24-hour access to studio space and the ability to earn income while learning the craft of fine art picture framing. Willie made the most of this.
During those years we had regular instructions from sculptor Heri Bert Bartscht and painter Perry Nichols. We brought in, among others, professional artists to exhibit and teach such as Elaine de Kooning, Hobson Pittman, Ben Kamihira, David DeLong and Alberto Collie. Most artists exhibiting at ACK also critiqued the students' work.
During this time we also had other very serious students such as James Havard, Tom Palmore, Roy Perkinson, and Ross Merrill. For a number of years Perkinson held a position as a world-renowned conservator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Merrill became Chief Conservator at the National Gallery, Washington, D.C. The latter are very fine painters to this day.
Robert M. "Mac" Doty was Chief Curator of the Whitney and covered south and southwest annually to choose artists for the exhibition there. He considered Dallas to be the fourth major center in the visual arts. Affirming the significance of ACK's educational and exhibition effort, he stated that we had a minor renaissance. Also working alongside the youngsters were many prominent citizens who became collectors, supporters and exhibitors themselves.
The point of all this is to share how Willie Wayne Young, an artist to the core, developed his intuitive abilities that enable him to consistently create such sophisticated and personal images. He has steadily done so beginning in 1959 and all the way to the present.
Willie credits Orval Browning, his first teacher, with showing him the way to "shade" as Willie puts it, allowing him to develop his imaginative forms in three dimensional space.
During these five decades, everyone familiar with Willie's work has marveled not only at the magic shapes themselves, but at their relation among themselves and with the energized space they activate between and around.
I believe that the real credit for any artist of Willie's caliber lies in his genius, but the nurturing of that genius was through the exposure and criticism of renowned professional artists rather than professional teachers.
Between 1959 and the time that ACK closed in1983, Willie worked regularly in the gallery and frame shop where he was also exposed, literally "hands on" with works by major French Impressionists, classic 20th century Modernists, Abstract Impressionists, Pop, Op, Minimalists, Photo Realists and such important and immediate innovators as Alberto Collie, who, incidentally, had his first one man exhibition at ACK in 1963.
Is it any wonder that a young dedicated artist, such as Willie, with something original and important to say about that intriguing land between the real world and the obsessive fantasy land has matured with such rare assurance?
Keep on trucking, Willie!
The following narrative was written by Guest Curator Edleeca Thompson on the occasion of the 2008-2009 one-man show of Young's work "The Visionary Art of Willie Young" at the African American Museum, Dallas, Texas:
The Visionary Art of Willie Young
At first glance, you might think that the drawings in this exhibition are sketches for a new online gaming version of Doom™ or the latest SciFi flick. Another inspection provides an opportunity to peek into the world of an artist whose subjects rely on real-world visionary experiences and contexts.
Willie Wayne Young is a Dallas native who began his art education, under the tutelage of Chapman Kelley, while taking classes under a Dallas Museum of Fine Art High School Scholarship between 1959 and 1963. Many professional artists exhibited and taught at the school including Ann Cushing, Deforrest Judd, and Otis Dozier. For the next three years, Willie’s fledgling artistic career began to take shape through exposure to other visiting artists like Elaine de Kooning, Hobson Pittman, Ben Kamihira and David DeLong. Later, Heri Bert Bartscht, Perry Nichols, Franklin Drake, Larry Van Haren, and Octavio Medellin all influenced his development as an artist.
Early in his career, Willie began to turn his focus on the simple observation of his environment. Trees, flowers, cracks in walls, sidewalks, and other anomalies in nature infused his work with a depth of vision that was innovative. His first drawing instructor, Orval Browning, showed Willie how to shade his forms toward a greater degree of three-dimensionality. Thus, the drawings in this exhibition reveal attention to detail and shading and a conscious relationship between form and the surrounding space.
Since 1959, Willie Young has produced drawings that challenge the imagination as well as the planar space in which they reside. They offer a glimpse into a very personal world that beckons a search for meaning in the twig and bone-like forms, fractured landscapes, and dancing acorns that float on the paper’s surface. Some shapes move and twist as if uncomfortable in their space. Others are simply static and closed, commanding attention in their intricate line detail and shading. Yet, other forms quite eloquently, and deliberately, reach out as if trying to communicate on very intimate level with the viewer.
Willie Young’s exhibition history includes: Atelier Chapman Kelley, Dallas, TX; Goldie Paley Gallery at Moore College of Art Philadelphia, PA; Ricco Maresca Gallery, New York, NY; Webb Gallery, Waxahachie, TX; Carl Hammer Gallery, Chicago, IL; New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY; The Newark Museum, Newark, NJ; and the Mason Murer Fine Art Gallery, Atlanta, GA.
The collection of drawings in this exhibition spans 31 years, from 1977 through 2008, and is only a fraction of the total body of work that Willie has been producing every day for the past 50 years.
Special thanks to:
African American Museum · Chapman Kelley · JD Evans Art Studio
This exhibition is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Charles McAdams, Jr., (1937-2008)
whose love and admiration for Willie Young’s drawings provided the inspiration for this exhibition.
Edleeca Thompson, Guest Curator
Press
Aug. 13, 2015 - New York Times, Arts, "'Outsider Art' Under One Roof at Katonah Museum of Art," by Sarah Gold
Sept. 30, 2010 - Dallas Morning News/Farmers Branch blog, "Willie Young exhibit at Manske displays creativity of 'outsider'" by Dianne Solis, accessed September 30. 2010
May - June 2010 -The Senior Voice, "Willie Wayne Young Sketches Between Shoeshine Jobs" by Minnie Payne, page 15, accessed May 10, 2010, read the pdf file here
Dec. 3, 2009 - The Dallas Morning News, The Arts Blog, "Barber shop artist takes another perch at African American Museum", by Dianne Solis, read it here
Nov. 6, 2009 - Dallas Morning News/Farmers Branch blog "Farmers Branch city council honors artist Willie Wayne Young", by Dianne Solis, accessed November 9, 2009, read it here
October 18, 2009 - The Dallas Morning News/Farmers Branch blog, Sunday, "Artist who polishes shoes between sketches gets first big Dallas show", by Dianne Solis, read it here
Current Exhibition
July 19 - Oct. 11, 2015 - Inside the Outside: Five Self-Taught Artists from The William Louis-Dreyfus Foundation
Manske Library, Gallery Spotlight, Farmers Branch, Texas - one man show, The Visionary Art of Willie Young September 26, 2010 through October 29, 2010
Videos
January 2015 - Generosity of Eye (a film about transforming art into education) Co-produced by Julie Louis-Dreyfus (Young's work is at the 41:55 mark)
December 2008 - Rebecca Stringer Show, segments 2-7, videos recorded at the African American Museum, Dallas Texas. Participants were Ann Cushing Gantz, Chapman Kelley, Arthur Koch, Jeanne Koch, Edlecca Thompson, students and teachers of Booker T. Washington High School for the Visual and Performing Arts and Willie Wayne Young.
BLOG SECTIONS