Halloween

After attending the University of South Carolina for two years, William Halsey sought art training at Boston’s Museum School. Upon winning a travel scholarship, he went to Mexico rather than Europe where war was imminent. In the early 1950s, Halsey’s New York dealer urged him to move there, but he opted to return to his birthplace, Charleston, thinking he might have a greater impact there. For a time, he was the only avant-garde painter in the state.

Halloween is an engaging image, notable for its bright colors and flat shapes. They play off one another: the circular balloon and the moon; the angled roof gable and the boys’ hats, the rectangles of windows and houses. Halsey’s use of Masonite contributes to the planar quality of the image.