WILLIAM C. HOOK
SANTA FE SEGUE | A ONE MAN SHOW
MEYER GALLERY
WILLIAM C. HOOK SANTA FE SEGUE | A ONE MAN SHOW
August 3- 16, 2018
On the cover: Blown Away acrylic 24x18
MEYER GALLERY
225 Canyon Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico www.meyergalleries.com 505.983.1434
The American landscape is William Hook’s inspiration. Large skies, low horizons, distant mountains, and textured foregrounds are expressed in his paintings with broad brushstrokes of vivid color. His work is distinctive and stands out from the crowd of today’s genre of landscape painters. The magazines Southwest Art, Art of the West, U.S. Art, American Artist, and Focus Santa Fe have featured Hook’s work in cover articles that proclaim his importance as a leading landscape painter. The book, Leading the West by Donald Hagerty, features William Hook as one of the notable influence on the western art scene. In addition, publishers Harper-Collins and North Light have included his work in numerous books written about the contemporary art process in Europe and America. William Hook’s background in art began at home. It was through the influence of his father and grandmother, a professional photographer and architect respectively, that art became second nature to him. Other family members were art historian Bainbridge Bunting, prominent Italian painters Gino and Bertha Venanzi, as well as Pulitzer Prize winning author, Willa Cather. When the discussion of art arose at the Hook household, there was never a lack of opinions and interests. “I was always encourage to try new media, and that is one reason why I still paint in acrylic. My grandmother would find materials in art stores or would have read about a newly developed medium and I would be the art quinea pig”. After having attended classes at the Kansas Art Institute, Hook left his hometown of Kansas City to continue his study of fine art at the University of New Mexico. Hook went on to complete his formal education at the Universita Per Straniere (Perugia, Italy) and the Art Center College of Design (Los Angeles, CA). It was his time spent in New Mexico where the scenery made an indelible impression on the aspiring artist, so much so, that he returned to make it his home and frequent subject. “I have painted all over the United States and Europe and continue to find New Mexico at the center of my work”. Mr. Hook’s paintings can be found in the permanent collections of the Denver Art Museum, the Tucson Art Museum, the University of New Mexico, the FORBES Museum, NYC, and the Genesee Museum, NY. In addition, Hook’s work is featured in prints for the New Mexico Symphony, Music from Angel Fire, and the Santa Fe Opera. Meyer Gallery in Santa Fe is proud to have represented William Hook’s work in over 22 solo exhibitions since 1988. We feel that this artist is a very important contributor to our gallery and has helped establish us as one of Santa Fe’s leading galleries. On the following page: There She Is acrylic 24x30
Santa Fe No. 6 acrylic 12x12
Aspen Council acrylic 12x12
Notable western landscape painter William Cather Hook will present a new body of work for his one-man show, Santa Fe Segue, at Meyer Gallery this August. Hook’s exhibition paintings reflect his experiences in New Mexico; his work typically blends nature’s abstraction with recognizable subject matter, resulting in harmonizing compositions that reflect the physical and emotional effects of the high desert landscape. In paintings like Couse House Garden, Aspen Geometry and Cottonwood Ranchito, Hook offers unique perspectives on familiar New Mexico subjects with the masterful painting techniques and loosened realism he’s known for. “I keep the subject matter intact as far as content, but bring it up to speed with a different look,” he explains.
Couse House Garden acrylic 18x24
Through this painting approach, Hook has always encouraged viewers to take a more inq our daily surroundings and notice the relationships between shapes, lines and colors tha everyday landscapes. For Santa Fe Segue, Hook takes this notion one step further with th modern painting series that magnifies those subtle relationships, which are the basis of h compositions. Upon first viewing this new Santa Fe series, it would appear that the artist abandoned any discernable subject matter in favor of abstraction. But through deeper stu paintings’ open-ended color fields and primitive forms, we begin to recognize Hook’s sa walls, linear white aspen trees and vibrant southwest skies. It is in this way that Hook’s su remains “intact” as he says; the landscape has simply been pared down to its emotional essence. In many cases Hook’s modern works are directly based on another traditional la show - note the relationships between Rio Chama and Santa Fe No. 3; Spring Snowmelt, Fe #9; Chamisa & Mesas and Santa Fe #7. According to the artist, this “segue to modern” thirty-one years in the making.
Rio Chama acrylic 12x12 Santa Fe No. 3 acrylic 13x13
quisitive look at at occur in he debut of a his traditional has completely udy of the andy-pink adobe ubject matter and artistic andscape in the , Taos and Santa � has been
Pond Light acrylic 12x24
Santa Fe No. 7 acrylic 12x12
Chamisa & Mesas acrylic 12x12
SEGUE: To make transition from one thing to another smoothly and without interruption
Fall in the Forest acrylic 36x24 on the following page: Aspen Geometry acrylic 24x36
Santa Fe No. 8 acrylic 12x12
Historic Hollyhock acrylic 12x12
William Hook’s artistic family legacy also has an ever-present influence on his work. Hook’s father, a fine art photographer, and his grandmother, one of the first professional female architects in the country, encouraged Hook’s artistic tendencies from a young age. Other family members were art historian Bainbridge Bunting, Italian painters Gino and Bertha Venanzi as well as Pulitzer Prize winning author, Willa Cather. Cather was William Hook’s namesake cousin with whom he shares a personal connection based on their mutual love for the southwest. Cather had roots in the East and Midwest but spent a significant amount of time in New Mexico as a regular guest of Mabel Dodge Luhan’s during the height of the Taos Art Colony. Cather’s well-known novel, Death Comes for the Arch Bishop is set in New Mexico and has influenced many of William Hook’s traditional exhibition paintings such as The Bishop’s Garden. Hook sees parallel relationships between his paintings and Cather’s prose as he masterfully illustrates the same landscapes that she poetically describes in her work.
The Bishop’s Garden acrylic 18x24
William C. Hook is known for his representational landscapes. His segue to modern has taken a mere thirty-one years.
Overview acrylic 24x24
Chama Bluffs acrylic 18x36
Santa Fe No. 11 acrylic 48x48
Ranchitos Door Bus Stop acrylic 12x12
Santa Fe No. 2 acrylic 12x12
Cottonwood Ranchito acrylic 12x12
Winter Palette acrylic 11x14
This year’s exhibit is packed with the unexpectedwith modern works based on the landscpes that have brought Hook considerable recognition.
Pink in Blue acrylic 14x11
Santa Fe No. 9 acrylic 24x24
Spring Snowmelt, Taos acrylic 24x24 on the following page: Bloom & Shine acrylic 11x14
Santa Fe No. 5 acrylic 12x12
Some Like It Hot acrylic 12x12
Six o’ Clock Cliffs acrylic 24x24
Santa Fe No. 4 acrylic 12x12
North Forty acrylic 12x12
Free Range Farm acrylic 24x30
Santa Fe No. 1 acrylic 12x12
Sopyn’s acrylic 12x12
Santa Fe No. 10 acrylic 12x24
WILLIAM C. HOOK Aspen Council Aspen Geometry Bloom & Shine Blown Away Chama Bluffs Chamisa & Mesas Cottonwood Ranchito Couse House Garden Fall in the Forest Free Range Farm Historic Hollyhock North Forty Overview Pink in Blue Pond Light Ranchitos Door Bus Stop Rio Chama Santa Fe No. 1 Santa Fe No. 2 Santa Fe No. 3 Santa Fe No. 4 Santa Fe No. 5 Santa Fe No. 6 Santa Fe No. 7 Santa Fe No. 8 Santa Fe No. 9 Santa Fe No. 10 Santa Fe No. 11 Shake, Rattle & Roll Six O’Clock Cliffs Some Like It Hot Sopyn’s Spring Snowmelt, Taos The Bishop’s Garden There She Is Winter Palette
SANTA FE SEGUE | A ONE MAN SHOW
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WILLIAM C. HOOK EDUCATION 1970-72 Art Center College of Design - Los Angeles, CA 1969 Universita Italiana per Straniere - Perugia, Italy 1966-70 BFA, Fine Art - University of New Mexico - Albuquerque, NM 1963-66 Kansas City Art Institute - Kansas City, MO SELECTED INVITATIONAL & MUSEUM EXHIBITIONS 2014 “Windows to the Divine” Colorado Dominican Vocation Foundation National Invitational - Denver, CO 2013 Friends of Western Art - Artists of the Year Invitational - Amerind Museum, Dragoon, AZ David Cook Galleries - Art of the National Parks - Denver, CO 2012 Autry Center of the American West - California Art Club 101st Annual Gold Medal Juried Exhibition - Los Angeles, CA Saks Galleries – Small Gems - 100 Artists From Across America American Art Invitational - Denver, CO The Albuquerque Museum Foundation – Miniatures/ & More 2012 Invitational Show – Albuquerque, NM California Art Club - Monumental Miniatures III - Signature Artist Member Invitational Pasadena, CA MUSEUM COLLECTIONS Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum – Tucson, AZ The Denver Art Museum - Denver, CO The Forbes Museum - New York, NY Genesee Museum - Mumford, NY Pioneer's Museum - Colorado Springs, CO The Tucson Art Museum - The John Goodman Collection - Tucson, AZ The University of New Mexico Fine Arts Museum - Albuquerque, NM AWARDS/HONORS 2014 Windows to the Divine - Artist of the Year Award 2013 Friends of Western Art - Artist of the Year Award 2013 Mountain Oyster Club – Wieghorst Award, Members voted Best in Show 2008 Mountain Oyster Club – Wieghorst Award, Members voted Best in Show 2005 Artist-in-Residence - Big Sur Land Trust/Brazil Ranch – Big Sur, CA 2004 Music From Angel Fire Chamber Music Festival - Featured Poster Artist 2003 Carmel Plein Air Festival - Best Local Artist 2002 Carmel Plein Air Festival - Honorable Mention 2000 Carmel Plein Air Festival - co-winner Best of Show 2000 Artists of America - Master Artist Award
DISTINCTIVE COLLECTIONS AOL/Time Warner - New York, NY Banc One - Denver, CO Blockbuster Video Headquarters - Houston, TX Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher – New York, NY Guarantee Bank and Trust - Denver, CO Erivan & Helga Haub Western Art Collection – Wiesbaden, Germany FORBES Magazine – New York, NY Founders Asset Management, Inc. - Denver, CO Holland and Hart, Attys. -at-law - Denver, CO Indonesian Secretary of State Raymond James Collection - Dallas, TX R.J. Bank and Company, Inc. - Tampa, FL Texaco World Headquarters – New York, NY World Trade Center - Los Angeles, CA SPECIAL COMMISSIONS Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum - Tucson, AZ Affiliated Bank Shares of Colorado - Denver, CO AmFirst Bank – Denver, CO Bank of Ireland – Dublin, Ireland Chevron Corporation - San Francisco, CA Denver Convention Center - Denver, CO First National Bank of Colorado Springs - Colorado Springs, CO Metro Bank - Denver, CO Texaco International Headquarters - New York, NY
Shake, Rattle & Roll acrylic 30x30
WILLIAM C. HOOK
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SANTA FE SEGUE | A ONE MAN SHOW Artist Reception August 3, 2018 5-7pm
MEYER GALLERY 225 Canyon Road Santa Fe, NM 87501 505.983.1434 800.779.7387 www.meyergalleries.com