Bill Parker was born in America, and worked with Hans Hofmann under Fred Hocks at the Beaux-Arts School of San-Franciso. In 1951, having been awarded a grant from the American government, Parker travelled to Paris, where he stayed to paint, and attended the Académie de la Grande Chaumiére where he developed an important friendship with Fernand Léger.
It was at the Grande Chaumiére that Parker was discovered by the art dealer Max Kaganovitch, who encouraged him to enter the prestigious Prix du Bührle, a competition with 350 other painters. When Parker won, Kaganovitch agreed to provide him with an allowance so that he could work without commercial pressures, “If you want castles and long cars” Kaganovitch told him, “you better go to another dealer. But if you want to paint, stay with me.” He did, and held his first of many one man exhibitions at Galerie Kaganovitch at 99 Boulevard Rspail, Paris, in 1952, and went on to successfully establish an international reputation.
Parker participated in the groundbreaking École de Paris exhibitions at the Galerie Charpentier along with other leading painters of the time, and the revolutionary Salon de Mai, aswell as exhibiting extensively across Europe and America, including: Cinq Américains en Europe, at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 1955; Trois Peintres, Marlborough Gallery, London, 1956; Expo Internationale des Peinture in Moscow, 1957; and The International Exhibition, Maine, USA, 1963.
The artist is represented in the following Museums: Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; Georgie Museum of Modern Art, Athens; Musée Bordeaux; Moscow Museum of Modern Art; Whitney Museum, New York.