Studio visit to New York Artist – Thornton Willis
Thornton Willis is a living link with the great New York art scene of the 40’s, 50’ and 60’s. Thornton lives in his New York loft in Soho just a stones throw from the Mercer Hotel and all things gentrified. Thornton and his wife Valied still live the bohemian lifestyle in a region devoid of any of its original authenticity. Thornton studied in the sixties, and gained strong recognition with his series of organic triangles with bold painterly surfaces. Thornton was kind enough to show me a number of these works. Seismic, ominous and powerful you can see why MOMA and many other institutions collected his works in the 1970’s.
Thornton ever curious and cynical of the typical arts industry, moved styles and began using a language of greater geometry, tighter, more restricted and reflective of the mood when he painted them. These works, or more importantly the shift to a new style confounded the arts industry, and Thornton never reached the peaks attributed to many of his peers.
Thornton clearly channeling Rothko, understands the higher ambition of breaking ground, leading and not giving in. When a young Sean Sculley knocked on his door, I am sure that Thornton passed on the lesson, but his counsel would have been; the world has changed this is my fight, relight the flame under abstraction its time for promotion.
