Bill Scott

Hollis Taggart is pleased to present Bill Scott: Two Decades, celebrating its representation of the artist for a milestone anniversary of twenty years. Bill Scott: Two Decades is the artist’s tenth solo show with the gallery since joining its roster in 2004. The exhibition features a sampling of works executed earlier in Scott’s career along with eight new striking paintings from his studio. These compositions provide viewers with a snapshot of the Philadelphia-based painter’s engaging artistic trajectory and his evolution as a virtuoso and mature painter.

The exhibition features paintings created over twenty years between 1997 and 2024. Like much of Scott’s oeuvre, the works are an affirmation of the sheer joy of painting and the act of creation. Rooted in his signature vibrant palette, hints of garden foliage, and sinuous lines, the paintings are built through layers of paint over periods of weeks, months, and in certain cases, years. They attest to an artist who has, through his lengthy career, put his faith in how iteration often creates meaning within the process of painting.

The new paintings capture the exuberant energy and brilliant color for which Scott’s work is recognized. Inspired by nature, whether fake flowers in his studio, views from his windows overlooking nearby houses and tree-lined streets, or scenes encountered on walks, his paintings evoke notions of paradise and our fundamental desire for it. Many of the titles of the new works, such as Wander Quietly, To Bow and To Bend, and Cimiez, draw from a wide variety of sources including songs lyrics, essays, and places. His painted imagery refrains from literally depicting or referencing any such sources, yet the titles lend poetic evocations to the paintings and often occur to the artist long after the paintings are finished. “I end up talking about the titles because I do not know how to talk about the process of painting, which for me is a completely non-verbal endeavor,” Scott says.

Scott credits his time spent with artists Joan Mitchell and Jane Piper for profoundly influencing his practice. Piper was an important early mentor to the young Scott, who first wrote to her at age sixteen hoping to visit her studio. This mentorship was enhanced by a close friendship with Mitchell, whom Scott met in 1980. Throughout the 1980s, Scott frequently visited Mitchell at her home in Vétheuil, at times painting in her studio. He received from his formal education at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1974 to 1979. Scott’s works are held in the collections of the British Museum, Cleveland Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Asheville Art Museum, Delaware Art Museum, and Munson Museum of Art, among others. His work has been reviewed in Art in America, Artnews, New York Times, and Philadelphia Inquirer.

Founded in 1979, Hollis Taggart presents significant works of American art, showcasing the trajectory of American art movements from the Hudson River School to American Modernism and the Post-War and Contemporary eras. Its program is characterized by a deep commitment to scholarship and bringing to the fore the work of under-recognized artists. The gallery has sponsored several catalogue raisonnéprojects, most recently for the American Surrealist artist Kay Sage, and has been instrumental in advancing knowledge of such artists as Alfred Maurer, Arthur B. Carles, and more recently, Theodoros Stamos, Marjorie Strider, and Michael (Corinne) West. In the summer of 2019, the gallery announced the formal expansion of its primary market business and focus on the presentation of contemporary work. It continues to expand its roster of contemporary artists, focusing on emerging and mid-career talents. With more than 40 years of experience, Hollis Taggart is widely recognized by collectors and curators for its leadership, expertise, and openness, on matters of art history, market trends and opportunities.