Celebrating the Life & Work of William Buggel 1939 - 2025

Reception & Artwalk Friday, April 3 from 5-8 pm

Born on May 8, 1939 in Columbia, SC, Buggel studied visual art at the University of South Carolina graduating in 1967. Buggel's career was as multifaceted as his art. In the late 1960s, while still a student, he served as Assistant to the Director of the Columbia Museum of Art. In 1967, he moved to Charleston to become Assistant Director of the Gibbes Art Museum.

Transitioning into photography in the 1970s and 1980s, Buggel captured iconic images of world-renowned performers visiting Charleston. His subjects included Luciano Pavarotti, Ella Fitzgerald, Tennessee Williams and Mikhail Baryshnikov. His early work as an abstract expressionist gained recognition when he was featured in the 1970 publication "Contemporary Artists of South  Carolina", produced by the South Carolina Arts Commission. At the time, he was noted as the youngest contemporary artist working in the state.

His business, ProFoto, became a hub for photographers in Charleston-processing black-and-white film. His photographic work extended to film sets as well; he contributed to productions such as "Deliverance" and "The Big Chill.” In 1975, his photograph, "Alligator" became the first photo acquired for the permanent South Carolina Art Collection. Later, he founded The Great Charleston T-shirt Printing Company. His innovative designs earned him five ADDY Awards for excellence in advertising.

In the late 1990s, Buggel returned to painting. Drawing inspiration from his years in screen printing, he began incorporating into textured collage paintings used t-shirts once employed to clean plastisol ink from screens. This body of work culminated in his solo exhibition "Ragscapes-A One Man Show,” 1999, The City Gallery, Charleston, SC.

Buggel embraced landscape painting using unconventional media such as red clay from upstate South Carolina and gray sand from Lowcountry marshes. These natural materials became integral to his depictions of light and color across fields and wetlands. Throughout his life, Buggel exhibited widely across South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia. In 2025, he was honored by the University of South Carolina during its centennial celebration of its art department "100 Years of Arts at the University of South Carolina" as one of its significant alumni artists. His work is held in numerous public and private collections including The Gibbes Museum of Art, The Florence Museum, The Columbia Museum of Art, The Greenville Museum of Art, The South Carolina Arts Commission Collection, The State Museum, and The McKissick Museum. 

Buggel passed at his beloved Meggett Marsh House in Meggett, SC on December 29, 2025.