Self-taught artist’s works show love for adopted hometown
William Hawkins was a lively and flamboyant self-taught artist whose works are irrepressibly exuberant.
Born in Kentucky in 1895 and raised on a farm, he grew up training horses and teaching himself to draw by copying calendar pictures and illustrations from horse-auction posters.
At 21, Hawkins moved to Columbus, a city he grew to love and show his pride for through vivid paintings of such landmarks as the Neil House hotel, the Vern Riffe Center for Government and the Arts, and Ohio Stadium. Hawkins, who worked into his 90s, died in 1990.
“William Hawkins: An Imaginative Geography,” a dazzling display of 67 of his paintings and collages, is on view through May 20 at the Columbus Museum of Art. Curated by independent scholar Susan M. Crawley, the exhibit brings together works from public and private collections and is co-presented with the Figge Art Museum in Davenport, Iowa. After Columbus, the show will travel to San Diego; Davenport, and Columbus, Georgia.
Hawkins often worked with enamel paint applied to boards scavenged from construction sites. He incorporated found objects — including toys, flags, magazine pictures and bits of trash — into his pictures. “If you don’t pick up detritus,” he would say, “you’re stepping over money.”
The three-dimensional “Tasmanian Tiger #3” is a forceful red, white and black portrait of the last known such tiger that lived at a zoo in Tasmania. Built with enamel paint and mixedmedia construction on Masonite, the striped beast with its pop-out eyes and tusks easily commands the room.
Hawkins depicted the Riffe Center in the king-size sculpture (92-by-51-by-33 inches) “Columbus Skyline 1989,” built of enamel, collage, wood and tin. Not to be missed is the Lady Liberty painting on the back. The threedimensional “Neil House With Chimney #2” celebrates a hotel that was razed in 1981. His colorful, geometric “Ohio State University Stadium #1” was recently acquired by the Columbus museum for its permanent collection.
Youthful years spent on the farm are reflected in a variety of Hawkins’ paintings, including “Untitled (Rearing Stud Horse)” (1987) with its prancing brown horse set against a lovely pink background.
Hawkins often depicted snakes in his work, conjuring up themes biblical, dangerous or playful — or all three. “All About Eve” (1989) is a rather creepy collage with a snake and an apple wrapped around a three-dimensional woman’s body. “Dragon Snake” (1987), also three-dimensional, is a construction of a snake winding around like a carefully planned road. Exotic and rather sinisterlooking, the work is also amusing, especially the snake’s body made of corrugated duct tubing that flexes like an accordion.
Not to be missed are Hawkins’ “Last Suppers.” Eight of the known nine versions he created are on view. Each one is distinctive and sly in its own way. Hawkins wasn’t particular about the number of disciples he included or their identities. A female sits at the table in one; a Leonardo da Vinci look-alike is in another. Stevie Wonder shows up as the Christ figure in “Last Supper #9.”
Hawkins signed almost every painting and collage with his name in big block letters and his birth date: July 27, 1895. “Kentucky” also often shows up beside his signature.
Though he had drawn and painted since he was a boy, Hawkins did not receive artistic recognition or acclaim until he was in his 70s. He was most productive during the 1980s — when he was in his 80s and early 90s.
Indeed, his friend and champion, artist Lee Garrett, entered Hawkins’ “Atlas Building #2” in the 1982 Ohio State Fair Fine Arts Exhibition. The judge that year, esteemed artist Robert Natkin, moved Hawkins’ painting from the amateur to the professional division, where it was awarded first prize.
“William Hawkins: An Imaginative Geography,” the first major exhibition in more than a decade devoted to the artist, is a fine reminder and tribute to a quirky and talented adopted favorite son of Columbus.