John Silk Deckard (1938-1994)

March 15 - April 16, 1997

Man is the most dangerous species on earth. His only hope for salvation is himself.    - John Silk Deckard

Deckard is a master of the human anatomy...a voyeur of the soul.
- Howard E. Wooden, Director Emeritus, Wichita Art Museum

John Silk Deckard was born in Erie, Pennsylvania and studied with painter Joseph Plavcan until the age of seventeen. He won a National Scholastic scholarship to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and continued his studies at Edinboro State College, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pennsylvania and the Pratt Graphic Art Center. By the early 1960's Deckard had developed his own distinctive figurative style. Through printmaking he began to explore the human form and themes which would dominate his work: alienation, sacrifice, and powerlessness.

In 1965 Deckard was selected by the Associated American Artists in New York City to take part in his first major exhibition, A New Generation of American Printmakers. His work was also included in the Whitney Museum of American Art's Annual Exhibition 1966: Contemporary Sculpture and Prints. He was invited to show in the 1965 and 1967 Annual Exhibitions at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and in the 1965 and 1966 Boston Printmakers Annual Print Exhibitions at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. These years mark Deckard's most active period, during which he exhibited his work widely, including at the Brooklyn Museum, De Cinque Gallery, the Museum of Art at Penn State University, and the Mickelson Gallery in Washington, DC.

Though early on he demonstrated facility with the different media of drawing, painting, printmaking and sculpture, by the 1970's sculpture had become his primary means of expression. His work is in a number of private and public collections including the National Gallery of Art, Ackland Art Museum-University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Rose Art Museum-Brandeis University, PPG Industries, Cincinnati Art Museum, Sheldon Swope Art Museum, DePauw University, The Free Library of Philadelphia, Wichita Art Museum, and Erie Art Museum.

Among his major works are the sculptures Eternal Vigilance, Erie Art Museum, 1978; Knifeman, Wichita Museum of Art, 1986; Cruciform-Transfiguration, Holy Cross Church, Erie, Pennsylvania, 1977; and the print Didactic Dance, National Gallery of Art, 1964.