Collection: William Taggart

Born in Buffalo, NY, in 1936, he received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago on a Ford Foundation Fellowship and an MFA from the University of New Mexico. After he moved to New York his work was shown at the Betty Parsons Gallery from 1970 until Parsons' death in 1982. His work was featured in group shows and one-man exhibitions throughout the U.S. and is held in many private and public collections, including the American embassies in Bonn, Mexico City, and New Delhi; the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago; the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo; IBM; the Prudential Insurance Company and the Port Authority of NY and NJ. William Taggart developed his bold use of color while studying at the University of New Mexico and in- directly from the work of Joseph Albers'. Color is the chief medium of Taggart's pictorial language. His use of color has a physic effect emphasized by the abstract spatial quality of his canvas. The center of his work is a painterly command of color: hues controlled by brilliant colors that act as abstract symbols and incorporate in the overall picture plane. Taggart's paintings have a humorous nature which is transposed into a concentrated abstract story telling imagery.