Rago Auctions

Born and raised in California, William Hunter is an almost entirely self-taught artist who is now regarded as one of the greatest living woodturners, credited with expanding the medium into more creative, sculptural expressions.

Hunter received his AA in Fire Science at Santa Monica City College in 1968 and, rather than pursue a career as a firefighter, opted to obtain a BA in Sociology and 20th Century Thought from California State University. There, he met Oscar Hindshaw and Harvey Holland, who introduced him to wood craft. Hunter studied basic woodturning with Hindshaw, but beyond that simple introduction he is a completely self-taught woodworker. He took to the medium with ease and was soon making functional pieces to sell in craft fairs along the West Coast.

In 1973, Hunter moved to the edge of Yosemite Valley and began concentrating on unique, challenging vessels and sculptures. His oeuvre developed into abstract realms as he pushed past the utilitarian functions of woodworking into artistic sculptural exploration. In doing so, he was an integral part of contemporary wood art’s emergence as a highly regarded form of art in its own right. In the early 1980s, he collaborated with his wife, esteemed jewelry artist Marianne Hunter, on exquisite pieces embellished with enamels and gems, turning rare materials such as ivory, amber, and tusk as well as exotic woods and even cast plastic.

Hunter notes that he is influenced by the work of Isamu Noguchi, Alberto Giacometti, and Constantin Brancusi, and his creations have been exhibited and published widely since the 1980s. He is represented in permanent collections, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Woodturning Center Museum, Philadelphia, the Chicago Institute of Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, among others. Hunter lives in Palos Verdes, California with his wife, Marianne, and continues to play a significant role in the field of contemporary craft and wood art.