William G. Congdon

William G. Congdon (1912 – 1998) was an American artist who depicted religious themes in a fusion of representation and abstraction. He is represented in many collections, including the New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, the Guggenheim Museum in Venice, among others.

Background & Early Career

Born to a background of privilege in Providence, Rhode Island in 1912 and educated at St. Mark's School in Southborough, Massachusetts. He received a bachelor’s degree in English from Yale University in 1934. Following his graduation, Congdon studied sculpture in Philadelphia and Boston. In 1942, Mr. Congdon volunteered for ambulance duty with the American Field Service. He served in the Middle East, North Africa, Italy, and Germany, and was one of the first Americans to enter Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.He subsequently published a book he wrote about the experience. He spent 1946 and 1947 doing rehabilitation work with the American Friends Service Committee in Italy.

Technique

Following his return to the United States he began to focus on painting, despite his background as a sculptor. He was known for pouring paint and using a spatula to shape the images he created. While the technique had aspects of Abstract Expressionism, Congdon continued to paint in a representational style, despite this technique.

Reputation & Success

Congdon’s first show in 1949 sold out. He appeared on the cover of Life Magazine in 1951. Success allowed him to return to Italy, where he continued to live and work, although he exhibited in the United States, attaining one-man shows at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston and the Phillips Collection in Washington. After 1960, Mr. Congdon exhibited primarily in Italy and elsewhere in Europe, and was increasingly ignored in the United States. Congdon was a convert to Roman Catholicism.

References

New York Times Obituary: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A03EFD9133CF93AA25757C0A96E958260

Website of the William G. Congdon Foundation: http://www.congdon.it/