William Brice
Title: Untitled #11 (Red Field)
Medium: Aquatint. 1990
Location:

William “Bill” Brice was the son of Fanny Brice, an American comedienne, singer and major star who was active between 1908-51.

Barbra Streisand starred as Fanny Brice in the 1968 movie Funny Girl, which centered on Brice’s rise to fame and her troubled relationship with her second husband, professional gambler and con man Nicky Arnstein. Streisand won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance.

Young Bill Brice’s talent was recognized early and he had the services of a private art tutor. He also benefited from the fact that his mother was an art collector and had a wide circle of sophisticated friends. Brice was influenced by then-active artists like Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. Remarkably, he acquired a work by Picasso at the age of 14.

Brice’s work is characterized by expert draftsmanship. He is particularly remembered for the “classic modernism” of his late work, in which masses reminiscent of ancient ruins figure prominently, inspired in part by a trip to Greece in 1970.