Hollis Taggart

“Bill Scott: A Prolonged Moment” to Open as a Digital Presentation at Hollis Taggart on June 15, 2020

Hollis Taggart is pleased to present Bill Scott: A Prolonged Moment, the artist’s eighth solo exhibition with the gallery. The presentation features a selection of new abstract oil paintings that capture the exuberant energy and brilliant color for which Scott’s work is recognized, as well as a selection of small-scale watercolors, which mark the artist’s first return to the medium in several decades. Opening online on June 15, 2020, the exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue that includes the artist’s writings on his inspirations, process, and commitment to painting, as an incisive and poignant genre. While Hollis Taggart remains closed to the public, Scott’s work will be installed at its W. 26th Street flagship location and be available for in-person viewing by appointment through the end of July. Bill Scott, A Prolonged Moment, 2019, Oil on canvas, 39 1/2 x 55 inchesHollis Taggart Scott’s abstract compositions are often inspired by nature, whether plants in his studio, views from his windows, or scenes encountered on walks throughout his hometown of Philadelphia and beyond. These representational elements are then filtered through the artist’s imaginings of idealized places and emerge on the canvas as vivid bursts of color, geometric forms, and spontaneous gestural lines. Scott’s engagement with nature began at an early age, when he would envision fantastical places to which he could escape. Through the years, notions of paradises that offer comfort and respite have continued to drive Scott’s work. This is particularly felt in paintings like The Imaginary World (2019), which suggest a rich and dense tangle of plantings and exude a sense of being enveloped in a warm embrace into which one can disappear. Music and poetry are also important to Scott’s process and practice. This is particularly visible in the way that Scott builds texture, depth, and density on the surface of his canvases, in instances thickly layering his oil paint, in others scraping it away, and yet still in others applying a very thin, almost transparent paint. The end result is a composition that roils with life and motion. Of the influence of music, Scott says, “I aim to…