Mid-Century Artist/Mid-Century Modern Art

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Joseph Miller Wood III (July 6, 1929 - November 10, 2018) was a modern artist who worked in the abstract expressionist style through his nearly forty-year career beginning in the late 1950s.  He earned both his BFA and MFA in painting at Yale University studying there from 1956 to 1961 under the tutelage of Josef Albers, James Brooks, and Neil Welliver.  He taught studio art at Williams College from 1963 to 1968 and afterwards he taught painting and drawing at Northern Illinois University, retiring from teaching in 1996.  He stopped making art in 2000.

 

Wood described himself as a “colorist” and taught Josef Alber’s relational theory of color throughout his career as an educator.  All of his modern abstract paintings (and studies for them) are compositional experiments in the use of color to create the illusion of space and form.

 

Throughout his career he eschewed commercialization, working infrequently with galleries to market his art, and even refusing to sign the front of many of his paintings (he preferred to sign the back).  While his paintings were critically acclaimed and won numerous awards, he saw limited commercial success, preferring instead to donate his work to charity auctions.

 

Today, his artistic legacy (including the sale of his remaining paintings and drawings) is managed by his estate.

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Education

B.A. Philosophy, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, 1953

B.F.A. Painting, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 1959

M.F.A. Painting, Yale University, New Haven, CT 1961

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Employment

Instructor, Studio Art, 1963-68, Williams College, Williamstown, MA

Professor, Painting, 1968-96, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL

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Select Exhibitions

1960- New Haven Festival of the Arts, New Haven, CN

1963- 12th Annual Exhibition of the Berkshire Art Association, Pittsfield, MA

1964- 8th Annual Eastern States Art Exhibit, Springfield, MA

1965- 30th Regional Exhibition by Artists of the Upper Hudson, Albany Institute of History and Art,
           Albany, NY

1967- One-Person Show, Bennington Gallery, Bennington, VT

       - American Drawing Biennial XXII, Norfolk, VA

1968- One-Person Show, Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA

1969- 18th Annual Art Show of the Art Guild of Lakeview Center, Peoria, IL

1970- National | 1970, Atlanta Artists Club, Atlanta, GA

       - 48th Annual Juried Exhibition, Rockford and Vicinity, Burpee Gallery of Art, Rockford, IL

1971- 60th Annual Exhibition, Art Association of Newport, RI

       - 24th Illinois Invitational, Illinois State Museum, Springfield, IL

1972- New Horizons in Art, North Shore Art League, Chicago, IL

1973- 16th Annual Beloit and Vicinity Exhibition, Beloit, WI

1975- Two-Person Show with Robert Bornhuetter, Ditmar Gallery, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL

1977- 30th Annual Mid States Art Exhibition, Evansville Museum of Arts and Sciences, Evansville, IN

1978- New Horizons in Art, North Shore Art League, Chicago Public Library Cultural Center, Chicago, IL

1982- Anderson Winter Show, Anderson Fine Arts Center, Anderson, IN

1983- Invitational, NAB Gallery, Chicago, IL

1984- 27th Annual Chautauqua National Exhibition of American Art, Chautauqua Art Association Galleries,

           Chautauqua, NY

1986- Art Rental and Sales Gallery, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (1985, '84, and '83)

       - One-Person Show, Simpson College, Indianola, IN

1988- One-Person Show, Northern Illinois University Art Gallery in Chicago, Chicago, IL

1989- Yale in Chicago, Gallery Vienna Annex, Chicago, IL

1992- Vicinity Exhibition 1990, Norris Gallery, Norris Cultural Center, St. Charles, IL

1994- 44th Annual Quad-State Juried Art Exhibition, Quincy Art Center, Quincy, IL

1995- One-Person Show, Milliken University, Kirkland Fine Arts Center, Perkinson Gallery, Decator, IL

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