Warrington Colescott

Warrington Colescott (b. March 7, 1921) is an American artist best known for his satirical etchings. He lives and works in Hollandale, Wisconsin where he and his wife, artist Frances Myers, operate Mantegna Press.

Colescott was born in Oakland, California, in 1921 to parents of Louisiana Creole descent. His brother, artist Robert Colescott, was born in 1925. Creole culture—which the artist described as “a rich tradition of cuisine and music, of skeptical judgments, of irony and humor in expression” —played a large role in family life. Both food and music were key components of his upbringing. Comic strips were also important to the young Colescott, especially the work of Jay “Ding” Darling; the caricatural and narrative components would greatly influence his mature work. As a teenager, Colescott discovered vaudeville and the burlesque at the Red Mill/Moulin Rouge theater on 8th Street in Oakland. The broad humor and slapstick, as well as the eroticism of the burlesque performances, would inform his art and humor throughout his career.

Colescott earned his undergraduate degree at the University of California, Berkeley, graduating in the summer of 1942. At Berkeley, he majored in fine art, and was active with the university humor magazine, the Pelican, as well as the university newspaper, The Daily Californian, submitting cartoons and writing for both publications. He served in the armed forces in World War II from 1942 to 1946, then returned to Berkeley to take a master’s degree in fine arts and to earn a teaching certificate. Colescott taught art at Long Beach City College from 1947 to 1949. In September 1949, he began his career at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he taught for 37 years, retiring in 1986. During those years, Colescott continued his education in Europe, first on the GI Bill to study at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, Paris, in 1952–53 and again on several fellowships and awards: in 1956–57, he was a Fulbright Fellow at the Slade School of Fine Art, University of London, and in 1963, he returned to London on a Guggenheim Fellowship.

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