Colorado & Regional Art

Quartet

Quartet

Year 1964

Artist William Joseph (1926-2003, American)

Media bronze

Dimensions 10 1/2 x 4 1/4 x 3 1/4 inches

Born in Denver, William Joseph rejected the family optometry business in favor of an art career. He studied at the Kirkland School of Art from 1945 to 1946. Joseph then followed Vance Kirkland to the University of Denver School of Art and received his BA in 1949 and his MA in 1950. He also studied with Marion Buchan, Clarence Van Duzer and Frank Vavra. Joseph was a lifelong educator, teaching at the Denver Art Museum from 1948 to 1951, the University of Denver from 1950 to 1952 and at Loretto Heights College from 1957 to 1988. Joseph was both a prolific painter and sculptor, equally at home with representational styles as well as abstraction. During his lifetime, he received over 60 commissions in at least 8 states, and was included in more than 80 exhibitions. In 1948, he received his first professional exhibition with a three-person show at the Denver Art Museum with Wilbert Verhelst and Martha Epp. In the late 1950s Joseph became affiliated with the highly regarded 15 Colorado Artists, the first Colorado based group championing modernistic art. Joseph’s 10-foot-high Beaumont Fountain sits at 19th and Welton Streets in downtown Denver.

ON VIEW in Studio Exhibition Room 14

Signature Inscribed "Wm JOSEPH 1964" lower side

Credit Line Collection Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art

Accession Number 2001.0008