Utermohlen, William (1933-2007)
Creator details
- Name
- Utermohlen, William (1933-2007)
- Nationality
- American
- Biography
- Bill Utermohlen was born in south Philadelphia in 1933. He studied art at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts from 1951 to 1957 and on the G.I. bill at the Ruskin School of Art in Oxford in 1957-58. In 1962 he settled in London, where he met and married the art historian Patricia Redmond. In 1967 he received his first important London show at the Marlborough gallery.In the 1980s he painted two major murals for two great North-London institutions, the Liberal Jewish Synagogue at Saint John’s Wood and the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead.<br />In 1995 Bill Utermohlen was diagnosed as suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Signs of his illness are retrospectively apparent in the work of the early 90s notably in the “Conversation Pieces”. In his last works, the self portraits of 1995-2000 Bill's style changes dramatically. Terror, sadness, anger, resignation are expressed as the artist fights to preserve his artistic consciousness against the gradual progress of dementia. <br />Since their exhibition by the Wellcome Trust in London in 2001 these last portraits have received an increased recognition by the medical community, the press and the public.They have been exhibited in Harvard (2005), Philadelphia, New York (2006), at the Cité des Sciences in Paris, the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles (2007) and at the Chicago Cultural Center in (July 2008) and the Musée de la Civilization, Quebec (2010).<br />The artist’s work is represented by the Galerie Beckel Odille Boïcos, Paris.<br />
