Hekking, William M. (American painter and professor, 1885-1970)

William Mathews Hekking (1885-1970) was born in Wisconsin and later moved with his family to Syracuse, New York. In 1908 he graduated from the University of Syracuse with a Bachelor of Painting degree. He studied in Paris before returning to New York City to work as a commercial artist. In 1911, he was appointed instructor of painting at Syracuse University. Subsequently, his career in art education led to other universities in the Midwest. In about 1922 he became director of the Columbus, Ohio Gallery of Fine Arts and Art School. He was appointed director of the Albright Art Gallery in March 1925. After his resignation in 1931 he continued to live and work in Buffalo as art critic for the Buffalo Evening News. In 1932 he became involved with the Buffalo Art Institute, a Depression-era project for artists. In 1937 he was appointed director of the Los Angeles Museum of Science, History and Art. He retired in about 1940 to devote himself full-time to painting. Hekking is best remembered as a marine painter in the traditional style. He maintained a summer home on Monhegan Island, Maine, which is often mentioned in his correspondence. In the winter of 1930, while still director of the Albright, Hekking applied for and won the temporary post of liaison officer on board a U.S. Coast Guard International Ice Patrol vessel, so that he could sketch and paint the North Atlantic ocean.

Hekking's personal taste in art was quite conservative. He had a great dislike for purely abstract art. Still, this prepossession had no influence on his management of the Albright Art Gallery; Hekking seems to have tried to preserve the balance between various types of exhibitions displayed and acquisitions purchased for the Gallery. From a historical viewpoint, a number of the more avant-garde exhibitions and purchases took place during the latter half of the 1920s. Most notable was the purchase of Picasso's La Toilette in 1926, exhibitions of sculpture by Bourdelle and Maillol, and in February, 1927, the International Exhibition of Modern Art organized by the Societe Anonyme. Hekking maintained a significant professional correspondence with Katherine Dreier, president of the Societe. In addition to the 1927 exhibition, Dreier lectured twice, and organized a further exhibition of modern works which came to the Gallery in 1931. Hekking's correspondence with Dreier, including transcripts of her lecture at the Gallery, from 1925 to 1991, contains illuminating passages in which Dreier describes her personal philosophy, her beliefs in the importance of abstract art, and its influence on society and reincarnation.

William Hekking (1885-1970) was an American artist, art director and teacher, known particularly for his marine paintings. He was born in Chelsea, Wisconsin on March 10, 1885 and educated in Dolgeville, New York. In 1908 he graduated from Syracuse University School of Art and received his doctorate from the same institution in 1929. He also studied with Richard Miller at the Art Students League, New York, and with John Paul Laurens at the Academié Julian in Paris.

Hekking's work experience included teaching art at Syracuse University (1912-1915 and 1942-1950), Milliken University (1912-1915), and the Universities of Missouri (1913-1915), Illinois (1915-1916), and Kansas (1916-1922). He also served as director of the Columbus (Ohio) Gallery of Fine Arts (1922-1925), the Los Angeles Museum (1938-1939), and the Albright Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York (1925-1932). For four years he was the art critic for the Buffalo Evening News .

Hekking's enthusiasm for marine painting began in 1930, during a five-week cruise with the International Ice Patrol aboard a United States Coast Guard vessel. His work is represented in the permanent collections of the Syracuse Museum of Fine arts (now the Everson Museum) and the Albright Gallery (now the Albright-Knox Gallery), as well as in numerous private collections in the United States.

Hekking was a member of the College Art Associtaion, the Wilmington Society of Painters, and the Salmagundi Club. During his career he won a number of awards, including a gold medal from the Kansas City Art Institute (1922), a Huntington Prize (Columbus Society of Artists, 1924), and a First fellowship prize (Buffalo Society of Artists, 1931).

Hekking's first wife, with whom he had three children, died in 1913. In 1942 he married Iola France (d. 1946). In 1950 Hekking became a year-round resident of Monhegan Island, Maine, which had been his summer home for 28 years. He died in 1970.