Basil King, born in London, England before World War 2, has been painting for over seven decades and writing since 1985. He does both in Brooklyn where he has lived since 1969.
He has published ten books and a dozen chapbooks of poetry since 1997 and over his lifetime has completed several thousand works of visual art in oils, inks, pastels, and mixed media. King’s visual art is in the collections of the New York Public Library, Yale University, the late Morton & Lita Hornick, Wadsworth Athenaeum, Grand Valley State College, University of Kansas Museum of Art, State University of New York at Buffalo, the Gladstone Collection of Baseball Art (now at the Concord Museum) and in private collections including that of Tom Seaver.Some 770 paintings are professionally stored.
Basil is honored to be the subject of the 2012 film, Basil King: MIRAGE, by Nicole Peyrafitte and Miles Joris-Peyrafitte. The text is from his book, mirage: a poem in 22 sections, and most of the images are his art.