In 1922 Bill Parker was born in Josephine, Texas. Early on Parker attended the Beaux-Arts School in San Francisco where he worked with Hans Hoffman. In 1951, Parker was awarded an American Government grant to attend the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere where he met and befriended Fernand Leger.
At the Grande Chaumiere, Parker was discovered by the well respected Parisian art dealer, Max Kaganovitch. Kaganovitch supported Parker’s artist endeavors and encouraged him to enter an art competition, which included 350 painters, called the Prix du Buhrle. Parker won the competition and subsequently participated in several one man exhibitions at the Galerie Kaganovich.
Parker’s reputation on the international art scene became firmly established and his modernist approach highly respected.
Selected Collections
Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam
Whitney Museum of American Art