Born January 2, 1913, McCloy spent his childhood in China, received his first training in art at the State University of Iowa in 1930, graduating with a B.A. in 1933. He spent one year at the Yale School of Fine Arts before returning to Iowa for graduate study in the Psychology of Art (M.A. 1936). After a year as a graduate Assistant in the Art Department (1936-37), he became Assistant Professor of Art at Drake University (1937-39) before moving to the University of Wisconsin, where he remained until 1948, at which time he resigned to return to graduate school under the G.I. Bill. The years 1943-46 were spent in the United States Army where he served as a Clinical Psychologist. During his years at the University of Wisconsin, he was mural assistant to John Steuart Curry on three murals, and executed two major mural commissions himself.

 

Back in Iowa, he received an M.F.A. in Painting in 1949 and a Ph.D. in the History of Art, 1958.

 

In 1950, he was appointed Director of the School of Art at the University of Manitoba, leaving there in 1954 to take over as Chairman of the Art Department at Connecticut College. He retired in 1978 and is currently Henry B. Plant Emeritus Professor of Art.

 

Exhibited:  The Chicago Art Institute, National Academy of Design, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Cincinnati Art Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Walker Art Center, Library of Congress, Joselyn Memorial Museum, Vancouver Art Gallery, Toronto Art Gallery, Winnipeg Art Gallery.

Painted Murals for Truax Field, the Wisconsin State Historical Society and the University of Manitoba.

Made Public Sculpture for Connecticut College, the Norwich Free Academy and the Public Library of New London.

 

      Work is included in the permanent collections of:  Library of Congress, The Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, The Wolfsonian, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, the Slater Memorial Museum, Norwich, CT. and numerous public and private collections.

 

His work is illustrated in  American Expressionism: Art & Social Change by Bram Dijkstra.

WILLIAM ASHBY McCLOY