William C. Harper (born 1944) is an American jewelry artist known for studio craft jewelry.

Biography

Born in

Bucyrus, Ohio Bucyrus ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Crawford County, located in northern Ohio approximately 28 miles (45 km) west of Mansfield and southeast of Toledo. The population was 11,684 at the 2020 census. The c ...

, in 1944. He received a BS in 1966 and an MS in education in 1967, both from

Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a private research university in Cleveland, Ohio. Case Western Reserve was established in 1967, when Western Reserve University, founded in 1826 and named for its location in the Connecticut Western Reser ...

in Cleveland, Ohio. He also studied advanced enameling techniques at the

Cleveland Institute of Art The Cleveland Institute of Art, previously Cleveland School of Art, is a private college focused on art and design and located in Cleveland, Ohio. History The college was founded in 1882 as the Western Reserve School of Design for Women, at fir ...

. Harper began his career as an abstract painter but in the early 1960s switched to enameling. Many of his creations relate to mythology and ritual objects, and his work was included in the exhibition ''One of a Kind: The Studio Craft Movement'' at the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

in New York City, December 22, 2006 – September 3, 2007. Currently resides in New York City. He should not be confused with the Afro-American sculptor and painter

William A. Harper William A. Harper (1873 – 1910) was a Canadian-born artist best known for his landscape paintings, and is represented in both the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the National Museum of African American History in Washington, D.C. ...

(1873–1910) or the American painter William St. John Harper (1851–1910).

References

* Harper, William, ''The Art of William Harper, Enameled Jewelry and Objects'', New York,

Kennedy Galleries Kennedy Galleries is one of the oldest art galleries in the United States. It was founded by Hermann Wunderlich in 1874 under the name of Hermann Wunderlich & Co. When Wunderlich died in 1892, Edward G. Kennedy took over the gallery, whose name was ...

, 1981. * Harper, William, ''William Harper, Jasper's Variations and Faberge's Seeds'', New York, Peter Joseph Gallery, 1994. * Harper, William, ''William Harper'', Tallahassee, Fla., University Fine Arts Galleries, 1980. * Manhart, Tom, ''William Harper, Artist as Alchemist'', Orlando, Fla., Orlando Museum of Art, 1989. {{DEFAULTSORT:Harper, William Claude 1944 births Living people People from Bucyrus, Ohio American enamelers 21st-century enamellers 20th-century enamellers American jewellers 21st-century ceramists