William Lester

William Lewis Lester was a prominent Texas painter and art educator who played a central role in the development of the Dallas Regionalist movement. Born in Graham, Texas, he moved to Dallas in 1924 and studied under Thomas M. Stell, Jr., and Olin H. Travis at the Dallas Art Institute. He became closely associated with artists Alexandre Hogue, Jerry Bywaters, Otis Dozier, Everett Spruce, and Perry Nichols, and was a founding member of the Lone Star Printmakers in 1938.
Lester worked with the Civilian Conservation Corps and later taught at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts before joining the University of Texas at Austin faculty in 1942. He served as art department chair and retired as professor emeritus in 1972.
His evolving style moved from American Scene painting toward increasingly gestural abstraction, characterized by vivid color, strong composition, and personal interpretations of landscape and figures. Influenced by Mexican modernist Rufino Tamayo, Lester embraced greater abstraction by the 1960s. His work was exhibited nationally and internationally, including major museums, exhibitions, and galleries across the United States and Mexico.