Signpainter

Clayton E. Walker

Clayton Walker's father was a professional sign painter in Kentucky and the artist, as a child, often used his father's brushes and house paint to create his own works on the side of a barn. This color woodcut pays an homage to those experiences, a riot of basic colors applied vertically to the surface. Though the composition appears to be gestural, each color requires the cutting and printing of a separate block.

While studying at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris in 1955 Walker met and began a long friendship with Picasso. He returned to the US to Texas, taking a job as art director at the San Antonio Institute of Art until 1963. This work was done during that period.