Henry Billings had a distinguished pedigree, being the grandson of the surgeon John Shaw Billings, who was the first director of the New York Public Library. He attended the prestigious St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire. He learned art at the Art Students League in New York, following his training with jobs in the offices of New York architects and engineers. Exhibiting his paintings at the National Academy of Design in 1927, he attracted mural commissions for New York skyscrapers. His mural for the Ford Mobile Building at the 1939 New York World's Fair attracted national publicity. He illustrated a number of books in the 1930s, including ones of his own authorship. In World War II he produced a remarkable series of paintings showing strafing targets as they appear to a fighter pilot through his reflector gunsight. A member of the Woodstock artists' colony, Billings taught at Bard College from 1935 to 1953. In his later years he lived on Long Island in Sag Harbor.On the BusTake the Point
Critical Analysis
Billings' work was characterized by bold shapes, clean lines and a fascination with machines and industrial processes. His Precisionist style stands out from the work of many other artists of the period. But he has received relatively little attention in the art world, perhaps because in the 1930s Precisionism was viewed as an artifact of an earlier period. Nonetheless his art has held up extremely well, and his prints look as fresh today as they must have been when they were first produced.
Murals
Medford, Massachusetts - Post Office: Golden Triangle of Trade
Lake Placid, New York - Post Office: Scenes of Winter Sports
New York, New York - Radio City Music Hall: Panther Mural
