Born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, William Fett was an abstract, surrealist painter of landscapes, often based on scenes of Mexico. He graduated from the Art Institute in Chicago in 1941. From there, he undertook several extended visits to Mexico to make the acquaintance of expatriate Surrealist artists who had escaped the turmoil of European upheavals by moving there. Some of his Mexican watercolors were accorded a one-man show at Durlacher Brothers Gallery in New York on October 5, 1943. The positive response to the work led to its acquisition by the New York Museum of Modern Art. In 1946, William Fett received an appointment as a teacher at the Washington University, St. Louis School of Art, a position he served as Professor of Drawing and Painting until 1981, when he retired as Professor Emeritus of Fine Arts. From 1982 through 1983, he was acting Professor of Painting at the San Antonio Art Institute in Texas. He later returned to Mexico City, where he died on September 10, 2006. Submitted by Richard Kurman, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Sources include: Walter Barker, William Fett, Retrospective Exhibition, 1943-1960. Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri William Fett, Original letters, documents, photographs, 1946-1999