William Manning

William Manning was born in Lewiston, Maine and lived in Maine all his life. Manning started painting in 1954 and later taught at the Portland School of Art (now Maine College of Art) for 10 years. He was then fired for what was considered a radical philosophy in teaching and painting. Manning was the first native Maine painter to paint abstract work (Marsden Hartley did a few abstract paintings around 1917), and was also the first to receive a National Endowment Grant and a MacDowell Fellowship. He co-founded Concept, a School of Visual Studies. Many of the students he taught became recognized artists in New York and elsewhere. He then became involved in the New York art scene for over 25 years, meeting and showing with many of the first and second generation abstract expressionists.

Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts
AT&T, New York, New York
Bates College Museum of Art, Lewiston, Maine
Center for the Arts, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pennsylvania
Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Dr. Thorston Kreindl Collection, Munich, Germany
Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine
General Electric Company, Fairfield, Connecticut
Kees Rijnboutt Collection (Architect), The Netherlands
Leo Samama Collection (Composer), The Netherlands
Lewiston Public Library, Lewiston, Maine
Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine
Provident National Bank, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Stichting Yellow Fellow Museum, Leidschendam, The Netherlands
The Crossover Factory, Munich, Germany
University of New Hampshire Museum of Art
Verhoeven Art Collection, Woudrichem, The Netherlands