| Facts/Data
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Birth
1873 (Manheim, Pennsylvania)
Death
1963 (Oakland, California)
Lived/Active
California
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Often Known For
landscape painting, graphics, illustration, crafts
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Biography from Annex Galleries:
| William S. Rice, painter, printmaker, and craftsman, was born in
Manheim, Pennsylvania. After completing studies at the
Pennsylvania School of Industrial Art and the Drexel Institute in
Philadelphia, a job offer brought him to California in 1900. At the age
of twenty-seven, he accepted the position as Supervisor of Art in the
Stockton Public Schools; a position he held until 1910. That same
year, he moved to the Bay Area where, for the next thirty years, Rice
taught in Alameda and Oakland, as well as at the University of
California Extension and the California College of Arts and Crafts
where he earned his BFA in 1929.
During the 1915 Panama Pacific Exhibition, Rice had a chance to study
and absorb the techniques of the Japanese woodcuts which he was to
incorporate into his own working knowledge of the medium. In
1918, the first major exhibition of his color woodcuts hung at the
California Palace of the Legion of Honor. Though he gained
national recognition for his printmaking, Rice embodied the Craftsman
spirit, painting with watercolor and oil, and working in ceramics,
hammered copper, and woodworking.
He authored three books on the subject of block printing, including Block Prints and How to Make Them, and wrote articles on naturalist subjects for Sunset
magazine. Rice was a member of the California Society of
Printmakers, California Society of Etchers, Prairie Printmakers, Bay
Region Art Association, North West Printmakers, and the San Francisco
Art Association.
Rice’s work is represented in numerous private and public collections,
including the Achenbach Foundation for the Graphic Arts, Boston Public
Library, Elvehjem Museum, Fitzwilliam Museum, Library of Congress,
National Museum of American Art, Oakland Museum, and the Worcester Art
Museum.
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Biography from Crocker Art Museum Store:
| Etcher, painter, printmaker, William Seltzer Rice was born on June 23,
1873 in Manheim, PA where his family had a carriage-painting
business. Rice began drawing at an early age and had art lessons
from itinerant artists. At age 20 he enrolled at the Pennsylvania
School of Industrial Art in Philadelphia and took classes from Howard
Pyle at the Drexel Institute.
He worked as a staff artist for the Philadelphia Times
until 1900 when he was offered a job in California as supervisor of art
in the Stockton public schools. He remained in that position for
ten years and then became head of the art departments at Alameda High
School, Fremont High School (1919-30), Oakland's Castlemont High School
(1930-40), and UC Extension (1932-43).
While teaching, he earned a B.F.A. degree from the California College
of Arts and Crafts and taught summer classes at that school. Rice
produced a number of watercolors of scenic spots in California from
1901. Wood block and linoleum prints soon became his forte.
At the Panama Pacific Exposition he was exposed to Japanese prints,
which impressed him deeply and changed the course of his future
work. He retired from teaching in the public schools in the 1940s
but continued accepting invitations to teach and exhibit for the next
15 years.
He died at his Oakland home on Aug. 27, 1963.
He was author of Block Prints: How to Make Them and Block Printing in the School.
Member:
SFAA; Calif. Society of PM; Calif. Society of Etchers; Oakland Art
League; Pacific AA; Bay Region AA. Exh: Penn. Museum of Industrial Art,
1904 (prize); Calif. Society of Etchers from 1912; PPIE, 1915; SFAA,
1916, 1925; Santa Cruz Art League, 1934; GOlF, 1939; Library of
Congress, 1943; Philadelphia Print Club, 1943.
In:
CCAC; NMAA; Boston Public Library; Library of Congress; NY Public
Library; CSL; Oakland Museum; Worcester (MA) Museum. Invw; Ben; AAA
1917-33; WWAA 1936-62; FId. | | Nearly 20,000 biographies can be found in Artists in California 1786-1940 by Edan Hughes and is available for sale ($150). For a full book description and order information please click here. |
| ** If you discover credit omissions or have additional information to add, please let us know at registrar@AskART.com. |
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