Bill Walton was born in Camden, New Jersey in 1931, the son of a printmaker. During his adolescence he inherited the trade from his father and for the following 15 years, among a handful of professions, Bill would practice and teach printmaking to earn a steady income. By the early 60s Walton had slowly become interested in the industrial tools he frequently used. In spreading ink on a plate he contemplated painting, and in considering the copperplate itself Walton sympathized with Minimalism - a movement that was just being defined.

Walton received a job teaching offset lithography in Pennsylvania and in 1964 visited a sculpture exhibition at the Philadelphia Academy. That same year Donald Judd wrote his seminal essay 'Specific Objects', which valued the use of simple, repeated and industrial forms to construct a real space.

Walton went on to exhibit throughout his life including shows at the ICA in Philadelphia and Carnegie Mellon University. He passed away in 2010 in Camden, New Jersey.

The most recent exhibition of Walton's work, on view in the fall of 2011, was a reconstruction of his studio at the ICA in Philadelphia. Presented here were all of the materials and tools, as well as incomplete artworks, remaining. His ability to turn these materials into Haiku was so adept that objects left on his worktable appeared to be finished pieces.