RAiR | 1969-70

William Goodman

William Goodman (b. 1937) was born in Wimbledon, England. After serving in the Royal Navy for two years, he moved to the United States in 1959 to pursue a career in sculpting and painting. The California School of Fine Arts (now The San Francisco Art Institute) set him on the path as a sculptor in steel. He left his position as an instructor at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque to participate in the RAiR program and took up residence near Roswell. William is best known for his massive scale steel sculptures and for his large, complex oil paintings. His work is held in the collections of, amongst others, the Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe and the Oklahoma Arts Center in Oklahoma City. The birth of a grandson in 2004 set him on a new path – the creation of mechanical toys and games. 

“The steel from which the sculpture is made is cut and shaped, and is then welded together into components that are set aside until the time comes to incorporate them into a larger assembly. I am sometimes asked if I use ‘found objects’ in my work. The answer is that it happens all the time, but only with found objects that I have created myself.

A large sculpture is made both of parts which have a particular purpose, such as to span the space between one part of the sculpture and another, and of parts which have been made and set aside waiting for a role in the drama, such as to reinforce or connect.

There is a lot of trial-and-error in the process. As in a battle, the beginning is organized and has a defined goal. This gives way to a chaotic state, with parts being cut off and set aside, then re-incorporated differently. Finally, it arrives at a resolved state which may or may not reflect the turmoil that brought it to that end.”

—William Goodman, 2010