Biography

William H. Bailey is a contemporary American painter known for his still lifes, landscapes, and figurative works. Emitting a quiet intensity, and appearing to be painted from observation, his works are composed from memory and sketches. “I don't like categories. I have been variously described as a realist and as a classicist. The paintings I do are not from life—they're made up, but they're made up from real situations,” Bailey has said. “All these things come from my memory really.” The artist is strongly influenced by the work of the Italian still-life painter Giorgio Morandi and the pre-Renaissance artist Piero della Francesca. Born on November 17, 1930, in Council Bluffs, IA, he studied at the University of Kansas, going on to receive his MFA under the Modernist painter Josef Albers at Yale University. He lives and works between Umbertide, Italy and New Haven, CT. Honored as a Professor Emeritus of Art at Yale University, Bailey’s work is represented in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., and the Art Institute of Chicago.