Department of Art Alumni
JOHN E.
WALLACE, JR.
Artist, Educator
John E. Wallace, art professor emeritus at Western Connecticut State University, passed away on Friday, April 15th. Born in St. Louis on December 29, 1929, he attended Washington University, receiving a B.F.A. in 1953. He also attended the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture in Maine, and Indiana University, where he received an M.F.A. degree in 1957.
Over a 60 year painting career, Mr. Wallace had dozens of one-person exhibitions and had work in hundreds of group exhibitions. His work is included in a number of museum and significant private collections. Since 1982 he has been a member of Blue Mountain Gallery in New York City. He was the recipient of a Skowhegan Fellowship, a Margaret Tiffany Blake Mural Fellowship, a Huntington Hartford Foundation Fellowship, and a Roswell Museum Artist-in-Residence Grant. In 1954 he created a fresco for the choir loft of the South Solon Meeting House in South Solon, Maine, which is now a historic landmark.
He taught at Prairie State College in Illinois from 1968 to 1979, where he was chairman of the department from 1971 to 1974. From 1981 through 2009 he was a professor in the art department at Western Connecticut State University, where he was department chair from 1987 through 1991. He initiated the M.F.A. in Visual Arts at Western and was co-coordinator of the M.F.A. program until his retirement.
He is survived by his wife, Margaret Grimes, also a professor at Western, his son Bernard Hulce of Naugatuck, his daughter Carolyn Wallace of Washington, his brother James Wallace of Holland, Michigan, and three grandchildren, Jacqueline, Jonathan and Kaitlin Hulce.
A memorial reception will be held on Wednesday, May 4th, from 3:30-5pm in the Higgins Art Gallery at Western. All of John's former students and friends are invited to attend. The family has asked that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the M.F.A. Fund at Western Connecticut State University.
