Windsor Utley (1920 - 8 April 1989) was an American musician, artist, teacher and gallery owner, closely associated with the painter

Mark Tobey Mark George Tobey (December 11, 1890 – April 24, 1976) was an American painter. His densely structured compositions, inspired by Asian calligraphy, resemble Abstract expressionism, although the motives for his compositions differ philosophi ...

Life and career

Utley was born in Laguna, California in 1920. He graduated from the

Choate School Choate Rosemary Hall (often known as Choate; ) is a private, co-educational, college-preparatory boarding school in Wallingford, Connecticut, United States. Choate is currently ranked as the second best boarding school and third best private hig ...

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

, and attended Pomona College and the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8. ...

. Utley was a classically trained flautist who performed with the Tacoma Symphony in Washington in the early 1940s, and continued to teach and perform throughout his life. He did not begin painting until he was 19 years old. During World War II, as a

conscientious objector A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to obje ...

Utley was an inmate of the Cascade Locks, Oregon,

Civilian Public Service The Civilian Public Service (CPS) was a program of the United States government that provided conscientious objectors with an alternative to military service during World War II. From 1941 to 1947, nearly 12,000 draftees, willing to serve their ...

camp, where he created several paintings and was himself painted by fellow-inmate

Kemper Nomland Kemper Nomland Jr. (May 8, 1919 - December 25, 2009) was a modernist architect in Los Angeles, California and part of a father-son architectural team with his father Kemper Nomland, Sr. He was also a painter and printer of poetry and arts publica ...

. After the war, Utley was accepted into Northwest Annual in 1945 where he met and was greatly influenced by Mark Tobey. The Smithsonian has a collection of 28 letters and 36 postcards sent to Utley from Mark Tobey and his companion Pehr Hallsten written in 1954 and 1955 while Tobey and Hallsten were travelling in Europe. A handwritten letter from Tobey to Utley dated 1959 is also preserved in the Smithsonian Archives of American Art. Utley taught at The Helen Bush School, and later became the head of the art department at

Cornish College of the Arts Cornish College of the Arts (CCA) is a private art college in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1914. History Cornish College of the Arts was founded in 1914 as the Cornish School of Music, by Nellie Cornish (1876–1956), a teacher of ...

in Seattle. Windsor Utley has been celebrated as a member of the Northwest School, but lived at times in California, Washington, New York, Canada, and Italy. He exhibited his paintings throughout the United States and Canada. Utley moved to Sienna, Italy in 1951, and during his year there was deeply inspired by the local art, culture, and architecture. Throughout his life he returned to Italy for extended stays, painting and exhibiting. He opened Utley's Art Galleries in Seattle in 1966, then in Victoria, British Columbia in the 1970s. He moved the galleries to Laguna Beach, California in 1983 and re-opened them in Seattle in 1987. Windsor Utley died in Seattle on 8 April 1989 aged 69. His work is in many private and public collections including the

Seattle Art Museum The Seattle Art Museum (commonly known as SAM) is an art museum located in Seattle, Washington, United States. It operates three major facilities: its main museum in downtown Seattle; the Seattle Asian Art Museum (SAAM) in Volunteer Park on C ...

, British Columbia Provincial Collection, Victoria, Duveen-Graham Gallery, New York,

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, or VMFA, is an art museum in Richmond, Virginia, United States, which opened in 1936. The museum is owned and operated by the Commonwealth of Virginia. Private donations, endowments, and funds are used for the su ...

, Richmond and the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seat ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Utley, Windsor 1920 births Abstract expressionist artists 20th-century American painters American male painters Modern painters Pacific Northwest artists 1989 deaths Cornish College of the Arts faculty Northwest School (art) American conscientious objectors Members of the Civilian Public Service Painters from California American classical flautists 20th-century classical musicians 20th-century American musicians Classical musicians from California University of Southern California alumni 20th-century American male artists 20th-century flautists