Willie Anne Wright was born Willie Anna Boschen, in Richmond, Virginia. Her father was a musician and sometime-artist.
She graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1945 with a BS in Psychology, and from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1964 with an MFA in Painting. She later studied at the Maine Photographic Workshops in Rockport, ME and the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, NY.
She married and had three children.
Career
Willie Anne began her artistic career as a painter, teaching art classes at the Jewish Community Center, and was influenced by one of her painting instructors, Theresa Pollak. For a while, she experimented with printmaking. By 1973, she began to focus more and more on photography. Inspired by her surroundings and personal life, her first works incorporated images of her family, friends, and Civil War reenactors. Well-known for her use of the old technique of pinhole, she is also an exceptional master in lensless photography, solar printing, and photograms.
Some of her more well known works include her “Civil War Redux” series, which focuses on local Civil War reenactors whom she followed around for several years, her “Pregnant Women” series, which features pregnant friends of hers, and “The Swimmer” series, which features women lounging by poolsides or in pools.
Collections
Wright's work is held in the following public collections:
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
Chrysler Museum of Art.
Mary Baldwin University
Walter Cecil Rawls Library and Museum, Courtland, VA
Mariners' Museum.
Southeast Museum of Photography
Smithsonian American Art Museum
New Orleans Museum of Art.
Longwood University.
University of Maine.
University of New Hampshire.
Exhibitions
1958 Group show, Valentine Museum, Richmond, VA
1960 Group show, Valentine Museum, Richmond, VA
1962 Group show, Valentine Museum, Richmond, VA
1962 Group show, Motorola Regional
1963 Group show, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
1964 Solo show, Jewish Community Center, Richmond, VA
1965 Solo show, The Art Market, Richmond, VA
1965 Group show, 20th Century Gallery, Williamsburg, VA
1966 Solo show, Westhampton College, Richmond, VA
1966 Solo show, University Theatre, Charlottesville, VA
1967 Solo show, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
1967 Group show, 20th Century Gallery, Williamsburg, VA
1968 Group show, Christopher Newport College, Newport News, VA
1970 Group show, "American Painting", Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
1971 Group show, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
1973 Group show, "Virginia Photographers", Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
1974 Group show, "Works on Paper by Women", Washington Gallery, Washington, D.C.
1974 Solo show, Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, NC
1975 Solo show, Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC
1975 Group show, "Virginia Photographers" Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
1975 Solo show, Foundry Gallery, Washington, D.C.
1976 Solo show, Virginia Beach Arts Center, Virginia Beach, VA
1976 Solo show, Deja Vu Gallery of Photographic Art, Toronto, Canada
2015 Solo show, "Direct Positive", Candela Books, Richmond, VA.
Awards
1964 Best in Show & Purchase Award, Thalheimers Invitational, Richmond, VA
1967 Purchase Award, "Virginia Artists" biennial, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
1970 Second prize, Thalheimers Invitational, Richmond, VA
1970 First prize, Richmond Artists Exhibition, Richmond, VA
1974 Purchase Award, James River Juried Show, Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA
