Trio

Walter William Barker

In 1949 Walter William Barker, a German-born American painter and printmaker, had only been pursuing art as a profession for a year, having erolled at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri on the G.I. Bill in 1948, the year Atelier 17 printmaker Fred Becker set up the printmaking department at the university. He took painting classes from Max Beckmann, a fellow German emigree whose focus on Abstract Expressionism inspired countless American artists throughout the height of the genre's movement. Barker had only two years of exposure to the principles and theories of Beckmann before the instructor's death in 1950, but the impression that he was left with was deep. He would go on to write several books and essays on Beckmann's work, and would himself go on to become a celebrated art instructor.

In "Trio," the early AbEx work of Barker is exemplified in his exploration of the abstract, setting aside the objective in favor of depth and movement created through the use of texture. As well, his deeply etched gestural lines, heavily layered and shrouded in the vestiges of wiped ink, are reminiscent of the style of Atelier 16 printmaker Mauricio Lasansky, who he no doubt encountered in his time at the University of Iowa.

Painter, printmaker, art curator and writer Walter William (Wilhelm) Barker was born in Koblenz, Germany, on August 8, 1921. While still a child his family emigrated to the United States where he was raised in Webster Groves, Missouri. Before beginning his academic path he served in the Second World War as a sergeant in the Corps of Military Police in Britain, Normandy, and Northern France, earning three battle stars. On his return, used the G.I. Bill to enroll in art classes at Washington University in St. Louis, MO, studying under Max Beckmann, Horst Janson, and Philip Guston and earning his BFA in 1948. He would then go on to study under Alton Pickens and Henry Hope at the University of Indiana, where he earned his MFA, while simultaneously studying at the University of Iowa and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

In addition to his fine art career he was an art professor and art writer. His first teaching position was at Salem College in 1949. From there he took up a position an instructor of painting at Washington University from 1950 to 1962, and an art instructor at the Brooklyn Museum School from 1962 to 1966, and from 1966 to 1999 at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, where he became Professor Emeritus in 1992. Additionally, he was a Special Correspondant at the St. Louis Dispatch from 1962 to 1978. Barker was a champion of the work and life of Max Beckmann, writing several papers and books on his former mentor throughout his life. He died in Greensboro on May 13, 2004.