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Merton Center Manuscripts:

'Congdon, William G., 1912-1998'

William Congdon; William G. Congdon; Bill Congdon; Congdon, Bill


William Congdon was an American artist who converted to Catholicism in 1959. For much of his life, he was a wanderer who rejected a life as heir to a wealthy Rhode Island family. His conversion happened in Assisi, where he would live much of the rest of his life, dieing in Italy in 1998. His early artistic influences came from the neo-romantic and abstract expressionist schools. After his conversion to Catholicism, he produced many religiously themed works of art. His biography from his foundation's web site likens his conversion to a "suicide", marginalizing him from the mainstream art community. Congdon wrote essays on art, especially sacred art and the duty of a Christian artist. Merton was writing about similar themes in his unpublished work, Art and Worship. (Source: Official William Congdon Site, maintained by the William G. Congdon Foundation, ‹http://www.congdonfoundation.com›, 2004/09/16.)


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1. Crossreference ; See:  William Congdon. Notes. -->