About the artist:

The watercolor images we have collected from Bill Beckley are the personal imagery and private mythology of a lively developing intellect and spirit. Beckley's paintings, like rainbows, are illusions to make wishes on and dreams to pursue. Beckley is continuously experimenting with various media. He has been associated internationally with "Story Art", "Conceptual Art" and "Photo-Narrative Art". He uses large photographic images and text in a more accessible and amusing context than his conceptual counterparts who are more concerned with the philosophical use of language and image. Beckley has succeeded by making his personal iconography both interesting and mysterious. Bill Beckley's magic is in this dreamy maze of fact and fantasy. His inquiry into romanticism turn our senses to a higher sphere of thought and feeling. His highly acute sensitivity allows the viewer to penetrate and uncover the inverted sensual references, distortions and fallacies that are a synthesis and a barometer for our notions of romance. Using this magical osmosis Beckley can charge these rather subtle pieces with an electric current of psychic energy. He can convey the whisper of a dream, a scrap of a letter, a recollection of an incomplete poem that vaporizes into the recesses of the senses. To remain a viable expressive form, art needs to explore, incorporate technology. Art has always been a testing ground for new ideas and the most renowned artists have always been those who by resolving current contemporary visual problems successfully have developed new references in art. Beckley understands art history and knows that all problems relating to space, color and form have been resolved. He has combined new and old vocabulary references to create an art form which is peculiarly his own. His work has the magnetic majesty that can split open the secrets of a suspended moment in time. One always comes away from a Beckley painting bewildered, enriched and a little wiser. Bill Beckley's work was recently included in the Whitney Museum of American Art 1979 Biennial, an invitational survey of the most important and provocative American paintings done over the past two years. The Biennial is designed to provide a construct for better understanding of the diversity that characterizes the art of this period and is considered internationally to be one of the most important collective exhibitions in the world. INDIVIDUAL EXHIBITIONS 1979 Nigel Greenwood, London, England 1979 Hans Mayer, Denise Rene, Dusseldorf, Germany 1978 Gallery 67, Bologna, Italy 1978 Hans Mayer, Denise Rene Gallery, Dusseldorf, Germany 1978 Art in Progress, Munich Museum of Modern Art, Germany 1978 Verd Munru, Hamburg, Germany 1977 Lucio Ameho, Naples, Italy 1977 Nigel Greenwood Gallery, London, England 1977 Daniel Templon, Paris, France 1977 Hans Mayer, Dusseldorf 1976 D'Alessandro-Ferranti, Rome, Italy 1976 John Gibson Gallery, New York 1975 Yvon Lambert, Paris, France 1975 Patrick Verselst/Marc Poitier dit Caulier, Antwerp, Belgium 1975 Performance, Steinway Hall, NY 1975 Francoise Lambert, Milan, Italy 1975 Gallerie 20, Amsterdam, Holland 1974 Gallerie 20, Amsterdam, Holland 1974 Performance, Francoise Lambert, Milan, Italy 1974 John Gibson Gallery New York 1973 John Gibson Gallery, New York 1973 Nigel Greenwood, London, England 1973 Konrad Risher, Dusseldorf, Germany 1972 Performance, 98 Greene Street, NY 1972 Installation, 112 Greene Street, NY 1972 Performance, Rudolf Zwirner, Cologne, Germany 1972 Gallerie 20, Amsterdam, Holland 1972 Francoise Lambert, Milan, Italy 1971 93 Grand Street, Organized by Willoughby Sharp, New York 1969 Wabash Transit Gallery, Chicago Art Institute School, Illinois Collective Exhibitions 1979 Whitney Museum Biennial, NY 1979 "Acquisition of the 70's", Whitney Museum, New York 1979 Story Art, Bonn, Germany 1979 Story Art, Heidelberg, Germany 1977 "Documenta", Kassel, Germany 1977 "Photographic Works", Gallery Nancy Gillespie, Elizabeth deLaage, Paris, France 1977 "Three Artists Using the Photograph", Alberta College of Art Gallery, Calgary, Alberta, Canada 1977 "American Art in Belgium", Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels, Belgium 1977 "Narrative Art", organized by Paul Schimmel, Museum of Contemporary Art, Houston, Texas 1977 "The Dada/Surrealist Heritage", Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts 1977 "New Art for Jimmy Carter", Georgia Art Museum, Athens, GA 1977 "Art of the Seventies", P.S.l., NY 1976 "Narrational Imagery: Beckley Ruscha, Warhol", University of Massachusetts, Amherst (organized by Sam Hunter) 1976 Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy 1976 "Sequenced Photographs", University Art Museum, Austin, Texas 1976 "Sequenced Photographs", San Francisco Art Museum, San Francisco, California 1976 "The Artist and the Photograph", Israel Museum, Jerusalem 1975 "Camera Art", Lund Kunsthalle, Sweden 1975 "Sequenced Photographs", University of Maryland Gallery, College Park 1975 "Toys", The Clocktower, NY 1975 "Report from Soho", Grey Art Gallery, NY University NY 1975 "Word, Image, Number", Sarah Lawrence Gallery Bronxville, NY 1975 "Narrative in Contemporary Art" University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada 1974 "Narrative 2", John Gibson Gallery New York 1974 "Photographic Art", organized by Flash Art, Milan, Italy PUBLIC COLLECTIONS Museum of Modern Art, NY Whitney Museum of American Art, NY Kunst Museum, Basel, Switzerland Kreifeld Museum, Dusseldorf, Germany Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England