William Wok

Art Brokerage: William Wolk American Artist: b. 1951. Born in 1951 in Miami Beach, Florida, William Wolk began drawing free-hand charcoal portraits at age eight. By age nine, he was working diligently at an easel in oils. At age seventeen, he spent one year in drawing study at the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, Florida (currently the Ringling College of Art and Design), but was soon told by his professor that his talent would be better served by study in Italy. At eighteen, Wolk moved to Florence, Italy to study at the Academy of Fine Arts and to engage in intensive self-study in the city's magnificent museums and cathedrals. He returned to the United States to begin his career with a one man show in Coral Gables, Florida at age nineteen. William Wolk is a Realist painter. His subject matter focuses on the figure, portraiture, still life, animals and landscape. His subject selection continually grows. As an example, paintings of the American flag appeared in his repertoire of still-life paintings in 2006 and are portrayed as a serious interior study of a visually complicated subject. On November 6, 2007, Wolk was honored in the Oval Office for his post 9/11 portrait of president G.W. Bush. The portrait was inducted into the presidential collection. On January 12, 2009, Wolk's portrait of the legendary golfer, Sam Snead was acquired for the permanent collection of the USGA Museum in Far Hills, New Jersey. A portrait of the artist at work, entitled Standing Behind Myself, is in the permanent collection of the Gilford College Museum in Greensboro, North Carolina. Listings wanted.