WILLIAM
MANNING
Am. b. 1936
William Manning is one of the best Maine based abstract painters since fellow Lewiston born Marsden Hartley. We are fortunate to have a selection of Bill's most recent paintings from 2019 as well as a sampling of his works going back to the 1950's.
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Philip Isaacson, art critic for the Maine Sunday Telegram, wrote in his October 18, 2009 column about Bill's show of new works at the Jameson Gallery, "Manning walks with the masters.” Maine Home and Design's April 2010 Art issue recognized Bill as one of Maine's artists whose work you should "collect while you can."
Daniel Kany's review in the Maine Sunday Telegram of one of Bill's 2011 shows says it all - "brilliantly conceived, extraordinarily well-executed and a pleasure to behold."
Bill's work can be found in many private and public collections including the Farnsworth Art Museum, the Portland Museum of Art and the Bates and Colby College art museums.
His awards include a MacDowell Fellowship and an Artist in Residence Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The works shown below on this page demonstrate the evolution of Bill's work from the 1950's to the present and would be excellent additions to (or beginnings of) any William Manning art collection.
Recent Paintings
Recent Paintings
Works from the 1950's, '60's and '70's
Selected works of William Manning in the Bates College Museum of Art Permanent Collection
Images to come
Selected works of William Manning
in the
Portland Museum of Art Permanent Collection
Please contact us about purchasing one of these spectacular works.
William Manning
3-D paintings
As with all of his works, William Manning's three dimensional paintings have their roots in in the magic of Mohegan Island where Bill spent many yearly fall journeys. Integrating organic and geometric forms, these works continue the evolution of Cubism. "Every step you take in front of my paintings gives you and entirely different view. You can never see the work in totality. But you can see it all the way around." Bill's three dimensional paintings were the feature of a 1995 solo exhibition at the Farnsworth Art Museum, and both the Farnsworth and the Portland Museum of Art contain his three dimensional paintings in their collections.
The Farnsworth Art Museum is currently showing 4 of Bill's standing 3-D paintings as part of its exhibition 3-D: Contemporary Works from the Farnsworth which runs until September 27, 2015.
The following works are a small sample of his 3-D wall and pedestal paintings. Please contact us to see more of these wonderful works as well as his extraordinary standing paintings.
3-D Paintings
William Manning
Works on Paper
2002 - 2011
It has been slightly more than 15 years since the Bates College Museum of Art hosted the last retrospective of Bill's works on paper (1961 - 2002). We are extremely proud and excited to be able to offer this latest retrospective of some of Bill's works on paper from 2002 through 2011.
Kenneth Wayne, the curator of modern art at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery from 1999 to 2005, said in his introduction to the catalogue for the 2003 Bates retrospective, Bill's "continual exploration of the possibilites of visual imagery makes Manning's work particularly captivating, poetic and engaging."
We hope you will agree with us that these words continue to apply with even greater force to the following works from 2002 to 2011.
All of the following works are graphite and mixed media and all are unframed. Bill's works on paper (as well as his other works) have been exhibited and collected worldwide as can be seen from his resume.