recent paintings

Nov 16 – Dec 22, 2006

Opening: Thursday Nov. 16, 6-8 pm

The Elizabeth Harris Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of recent paintings by Thornton Willis. This will be Mr. Willis's first exhibition with the gallery.

Thornton Willis was born, raised and educated in the South, completing his Masters work at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa . He moved to New York City in 1967 to pursue his career as an artist where he still lives and works.

This new group of paintings is a continuation of the dialogue with painting that Willis began in those early years. His use of the triangle and strong diagonals has become a familiar trademark in his work. Here he continues the process of reexamination and refinement.

In the past Willis wrote about his work, “The best painting is always ‘open-ended'. It asks questions, and partners with the viewer to bring the experience to closure, or it might excite another painter to respond – this is what I aim for in my work.” In September 2002 Willis wrote, “Over the years, I have presented various statements about my paintings. For the most part, I have chosen to write about the act of painting itself, and what might constitute authentic inquiry into Abstract Space and Process. I try to create in my work a real space, quite simply a real object for people to look at. I would ask that people really look at the work and not read anything else into them.

I have always given credit to my influences, in particular to the New York School of Abstract Expressionism, which opened the door for what I call ‘Real Painting', and to those more contemporary artists whose dedication; work and focus have informed my art and created for it a historical context.

For me, American Abstract Painting always has been, and remains, the most advanced means of visual expression available to a free society.”

Recently in talking about his upcoming exhibition at Elizabeth Harris Gallery , Thornton Willis stated, “Painting for me is primarily an existential act, one that entails a search for meaning and essence. The painting itself is made up of quantified elements, and it ‘exists' as a result of conscious as well as sub-conscious activity in space-time. A painting has ‘meaning' in terms of the relationship of its elements to the whole, and to the individual consciousness responsible for the entire process. The painting is the result then of a process invoking the intellectual, physical and emotional capabilities of the artist. The result, the painting, exists as an ‘entity' which can interact with the viewer as surely as it can be responded to.”

Thornton Willis has been called a “Painter's Painter”, despite this he has shown in New York and in Europe and has found his way into the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, but to name a few. Please join us in viewing his most recent work.

The Gallery is located at 529 West 20 th Street , 6 th floor, and is open Tuesday through Saturday 11 – 6.

For further information please contact Miles Manning at 212 463-9666.