Arthur W. Hall (1889-1981)

Born in Bowie, Texas in 1889, Arthur William Hall spent his childhood in Oklahoma and Virginia and studied at the Art Institute of Chicago although his formal education was cut short by WWI. After the war he lived in Europe for several years and studied printmaking and etching under master artists including noted English etcher E.S. Lumsden. Nearly two years of study and sketching in the mountain villages of Southern France greatly enhanced his artistic abilities and later in America he continued to widen the scope of his subjects and talent by means of sketching trips through the Carolinas, the Kentucky and Tennessee hills, Arizona, and New Mexico. The Halls settled in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1942 in the former home and studio of artist Gerald Cassidy. The Halls were active in the New Mexico art community and in 1950 purchased an estate near Alcade, NM (a small village between Santa Fe and Taos) where they operated an art school and studio. During the summer it was a vacation art school, providing them the means to pursue their own art the rest of the year. His wife Norma Bassett Hall passed away in 1957 and Hall remarried in 1963. From that time until his death in 1981, Hall worked exclusively in watercolor. In his last years Hall lived in Albuquerque, NM and focused all of his attention to perfecting his skill as a painter. He remained active almost until his death in 1981 at the age of 91.  

A member of many prestigious printmaking societies, Arthur and his wife Norma Bassett Hall were charter members of the Prairie Printmaker Society. In discussing the quality of this work, C.A. Seward once said, “Mr. Hall knows the possibilities of his medium.  His viewpoint is always that of an etcher and he renders his subject in line.  His needle seems able to accomplish anything, perhaps because he never asks it to become a brush.  He is an etcher first and last, and his glory is in the brilliant purity of the etched line and the burr of drypoint.”  Medals and awards given for his prints are numerous both nationally and internationally. Hall was a master of etching and dry point but was also extremely gifted in drawing, watercolors and oils. 

Member: Society of American Etchers; Chicago Society of Etchers; New York Society of Etchers; California Society of Etchers; Prairie Print Makers; Southern States Art League; charter member of California Print Makers.

Exhibitions: Midwestern Artists Exhibition, 1924; Midwestern Artists Exhibition, 1925; Midwestern Artists Exhibition, 1929, 1930, 1931, 1932, and, 1933; 14th Annual Kansas Artists Exhibition, 1938; Smithsonian Institute; Library of Congress; California State Library; Bibliothèque Nationale de France.

Awards: Bryan Prize for best group of American prints at international Exhibition, Los Angeles, 1927; Bronze medal for etching, Midwestern Artists Exhibition, 1932; Silver medal for drypoint, Midwestern Artists Exhibition, 1933; Shope prize, 1937.

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