Willing, Victor (1928-88)
Creator details
- Name
- Willing, Victor (1928-88)
- Nationality
- English
- Biography
- Victor Willing (b. 1928, Alexandria, Egypt, d. 1988, North London, United Kingdom) was a British painter known for his spare, incisive portraiture and figure studies as well as his Neo-expressionist later works. The artist studied painting at the Slade School of Fine Art from 1949 through 1953. During this time he was introduced to the work of Francis Bacon and invited him to speak at the school, setting the grounds for a lifelong artistic friendship. Willing followed his wife, artist Paula Rego, to Portugal in 1958 after the birth of their first child. Later in London, and with failing health, he began painting with renewed energy, and his work took on a wilder, fantastic verve. During the last decade of his life, the artist enjoyed substantial critical and commercial success, and he was the subject of a retrospective at Whitechapel Gallery in 1986, two years before his death.
