William King, Oral History

Oral History Interview of William King by Liza Zapol in East Hampton, New York on September 14, 2011

Skowhegan · King, William

William King, 2011. Photo: Liza Zapol

Skowhegan Oral History Project

The collection of Oral Histories began as a project in 2011 with oral historian Liza Zapol to create a consistent group of testimonies and memories from different people that shaped the school over the years.

“When I began this project, knowing I would be working with visual artists I formulated my questions visually and sensorially: If you were to make a drawing of an image from your summer in 1957, what would it look like? What is the perspective? What objects and spaces do you remember?

My questions, now that I know Skowhegan through grounded theory, are more dynamic in relation to the narrator’s whole life and understanding, ultimately engaging in how they make meaning. What results is a collection of narratives which evoke images and relationships that are integral to art history, society, and visual culture. And it is resoundingly specific—through this collection of oral histories, we hear a polyvocal Skowhegan.” Liza Zapol

A selection of Oral Histories are accessible in The Library. Additional interviews are accessible upon request at archive@skowheganart.org. Participants include: Sigmund Abeles, Emma Amos, Mildred Brinn, Ashley Bryan, Warren Cook, Daphne Cummings, Lois Dodd, Rackstraw Downes, David Driskell, Janet Fish, Richard Haas, Sidney Hurtwitz, Yvonne Jacquette, Penelope Jencks, Alex Katz, William King, Joyce Kozloff, Barbara Lapcek, Brice Marden, Alexander Milliken, Heidi Nitze, Muriel Palmer, Howardena Pindell, David Reed, Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt, Abigail Shahn, Robert Storr, Barbara Sussman

Abstract

William King participates in an oral history with Liza Zapol. King shares his memories of attending Skowhegan in 1948 as a participant, following the completion of his undergraduate degree at Cooper Union. King states that he specifically spent the summer of 1948 working with Henry Varnum Poor and Anne Poor making frescos. King loved the sheer physicality that it required to make frescos and it was a wonderful experience for him.

King then shared his memories of Willard “Bill” Cummings, stating that Cummings was the nearest thing to genuine aristocracy the United States of America has. King believed that Bill Cummings was very real in the sense that he deeply cared about art and artists, and he cared about growing a metaphorical “crop” of artists and arranged their seedbeds so they would come through as best they could and continue to make art. King then states that for him, Skowhegan is the pivot, and people that get in there—for better or worse—decide the eventual question: When you wake up in the morning, are you going to go to the studio and make art, or are you not? That’s every morning, every day, all the rest of your life. That is the decision artists have to make. King also shares his memories of painting the frescos at South Solon Meeting House and how Bill Cummings played a huge role in Margaret Day Blake financing the frescoes at the South Solon Meeting House.

King then shared stories of returning to Skowhegan as a faculty member in 1967 and the various participants and faculty members he engaged with. King ends his oral history by reflecting on how Skowhegan has become a “Shangri-La” in his psyche, stating that he would go there anytime, under any circumstances, and to do anything Skowhegan asks of him. Ultimately for King, Skowhegan will always be a place of painting, drawing, and sculpture in all of its purity and grandness.