William Hawkins

The first book of paintings--122 reproductions--by a brilliant twentieth-century folk artist: a self-taught master, who began to paint when he was ten years old and won national recognition at the age of eighty-five.

William Hawkins was born and raised on a small Kentucky farm. Needing to express himself, he used whatever materials were at hand--glossy enamels (ordinary house paints), large pieces of Masonite, heavy paper or cardboard rescued from trash heaps. He painted continuously, earning his living as a truck driver, among other things. His intense, wondrous, quirky paintings are filled with images--startling and playful--that derive from an unruly but inspired sense of freedom and humor. Here are wild animals--an elephant with a striped tusk and trunk...a stag, wide-eyed and startled, looking out from a masklike face; cityscapes; historical and modern landmark architecture; images made from photographs; a red Ferris wheel; a short humpbacked creature with a cone hat, a beak, and a single, pasted-on eye.

Handsomely designed and produced, William Hawkins chronicles the life and work of one of our most important folk artists.

Frank Maresca and Roger Ricco are among the country's most distinguished collectors and dealers of outsider art. They have  played a crucial role in gaining recognition for self-taught artists, both through their gallery, the Ricco/Maresca Gallery in New York City, and through their collaboration on several books, including Bill Traylor, American Self-Taught, and American Primitive.