William T. Williams
Encyclopedia
William T. Williams was born in Cross Creek, North Carolina
, United States
. He received a BFA degree from Pratt Institute
in 1966 and studied at The Skowhegan School of Art
. In 1968 he received an MFA degree from Yale University
School of Art and Architecture. He is presently Professor of Art at Brooklyn College
, the City University of New York, whose faculty he joined in 1971.
Williams is a recipient of numerous awards including a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship
, two National Endowment for the Arts
Awards, and a Joan Mitchell
Foundation Award. He is also a recipient of The Studio Museum in Harlem's Artist Award in 1992 and received The James Van Dee Zee Award from the Brandywine Workshop for lifetime achievement in the arts in 2005.
Most recently, he was the recipient of the 2006 North Carolina Governors Award for Fine Arts. The highest civilian honor the state can bestow. William's is represented in numerous museum and corporate collections including The Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art
, North Carolina Museum of Art
, The Arthur Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The Menil Collection, Fogg Art Museum
, The Studio Museum in Harlem, The Library of Congress, Yale University Art Gallery
, Chase Manhattan Bank
, AT&T
, General Mills Corporation, UnitedHealth Group
, Southwestern Bell
Corporation and Prudential Financial
Insurance Company of America.
He has exhibited in over 100 museums and art centers in the United States, France, Germany, Russia, Venezuela, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, People's Republic of China and Japan.
, provided the atmosphere for the sensible will an artist so often needs in the formative years. The colorful memories of a peaceful and wholesome lifestyle in the rural South followed Williams north.
David C. Driskell
, "An Unending Visual Odyssey"
), which held many of its classes at the Museum of Modern Art
and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
In 1962 Williams entered Pratt Institute
to study painting. During his junior year there, he won a summer scholarship to The Skowhegan School of Art
and also received a National Endowment for the Arts
, traveling grant. Before his brief stay was over, he had decided that he would become an artist.
Valerie J. Mercer, Behind Closed Doors
in 1968, Williams quickly gained attention from the mainstream art world. The Museum of Modern Art acquired his composition "Elbert Jackson L.A.M.F., Part II in 1969, and by 1970 his work was being exhibited at The Foundation Maeght in the south of France, in a room with paintings by some of the superstars of abstract expressionism
: Willem De Kooning
, Mark Rothko
, Clifford Still and Philip Guston
.
Valerie J. Mercer
and Yale University
in the 1960s in the visual arts curriculum prepared him well for the creative path his art would take in the next two decades. He moved consummately thereafter to investigate the physical boundaries one finds uncommon to explorations in the science of color, setting for himself the standard of achieving in his work an inherent completeness out of the reach of other painters.
David C. Driskell
The late late 60s was a very busy time for William. In 1969 he participated in The Black Artist in America: A Symposium held at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, NY. He also took part in numerous groundbreaking exhibitions includingThe Studio Museum in Harlem's Inaugural Show, X to the Fourth Power and New Acquisitions held at The Museum of Modern Art. In 1970 Williams was also commissioned by the Jewish Museum (New York)
, and The Menil Collection in Houston, TX.
and I physically cleaned that space out for the Artist-in-Residence program. That was the beginning." I wanted to create a context, namely an Artist-in-Residence program, through which money could be funnelled to artists which would allow them to ponder the kinds of issues and questions that come up in a graduate program. Kinshasha Conwill, former director of the museum, says that the program "has become critical to the museum's identity and its contribution to the larger art arena."
exhibited his work twice; collectors such as AT&T
and General Mills
purchased his art; and his work was featured in both Life Magazine and Time Magazines.
Valerie J. Mercer
for the inspiration of a new palette, one born of the luster and glow of mica, false gold, and fox fire from earth's pulsating cover. Williams' relief from color-field painting was celebrated in the new works completed between 1971–1977, such as Equinox and Indian Summer. In 1975 William also took part in an artist in residence program at Fisk University
in Nashville, TN.
David C. Driskell
, Nigeria
, also known as FESTAC. This festival brought together more than 17,000 artists of African descent from 59 countries. It was the largest cultural event ever held on the African continent.
and The State University of New York at Old Westbury
. It also traveled to The Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute
in Utica, NY and The Chrysler Museum of Art
in Norfolk, VA.
In 1987 William received The John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship
. He also was a member of a show that took place in Tokyo, Japan entitled The Art of Black America in Japan. The international acclaim and fervor didn't stop there William also took part in Contemporary Visual Expressions, a show at The Anacostia Museum
/Smithsonian Institution
in Washington, DC.
with painter Jack Whitten and sculptor's, Mel Edwards
and Tyrone Mitchell for the opening of their exhibition Espiritu & Materia at The Museum of Visual Arts
, Alejandro Otero.
Artist's Award for lifetime achievement and his role in creating the artist-in-residence program for the museum.
first invited Williams to make a print at the Printmaking Workshop in 1975. Over the next 22 years, Williams collaborated with Blackburn to produce 19 editions, as well as, a number of unique print projects. Bob's friendship, expertise and advice was key to Williams development in the print medium. His last project at The Printmaking Workshop was in 1997 when he produced a number of monoprints underwritten by art patron, Major Thomas.
at Philips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts and The Studio Museum in Harlem in New York
traveled to over 8 major museums including, The Corcoran Gallery of Art
, The Art Institute of Chicago, Fisk University
, Duke University
and Hampton
Universities Art museums.
program titled, Swing Landscapes: Jazz Visualized. The intent of the Jazz Talk program was to explore what it is about jazz that makes its colors, rhythms and characters so attractive to the painter's eye. Williams, along with author, Alfred Appel, Jr. discussed the influence of jazz
on modern art
. This program was part of a NY citywide celebration honoring the artist Romare Bearden
.
's, Experimental Printmaking Institute (EPI), which included Williams lecture about his work sponsored by the David L. Sr. and Helen J. Temple Visiting Lecture Series Fund. During this year, William's work was also shown at The Studio Museum in Harlem in Energy and Experimentation: Black Artists and Abstraction 1964-1980.
. This is the highest civilian honor a state can bestow.
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. He received a BFA degree from Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute is a private art college in New York City located in Brooklyn, New York, with satellite campuses in Manhattan and Utica. Pratt is one of the leading undergraduate art schools in the United States and offers programs in Architecture, Graphic Design, History of Art and Design,...
in 1966 and studied at The Skowhegan School of Art
The Skowhegan School of Art
The Skowhegan School of Art is a nine week summer artists' residency located in Madison, Maine and founded there in 1947.The school invites applicants to submit artworks as slides, which are then judged by a jury of school governors and artists. During the summer work period, artists are given...
. In 1968 he received an MFA degree from Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
School of Art and Architecture. He is presently Professor of Art at Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College
Brooklyn College is a senior college of the City University of New York, located in Brooklyn, New York, United States.Established in 1930 by the New York City Board of Higher Education, the College had its beginnings as the Downtown Brooklyn branches of Hunter College and the City College of New...
, the City University of New York, whose faculty he joined in 1971.
Williams is a recipient of numerous awards including a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
, two National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
Awards, and a Joan Mitchell
Joan Mitchell
Joan Mitchell was a "second generation" abstract expressionist painter. She was an essential member of the American Abstract expressionist movement, even though much of her career took place in France. Along with Lee Krasner, Grace Hartigan, and Helen Frankenthaler she was one of her era's few...
Foundation Award. He is also a recipient of The Studio Museum in Harlem's Artist Award in 1992 and received The James Van Dee Zee Award from the Brandywine Workshop for lifetime achievement in the arts in 2005.
Most recently, he was the recipient of the 2006 North Carolina Governors Award for Fine Arts. The highest civilian honor the state can bestow. William's is represented in numerous museum and corporate collections including The Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art
Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney Museum of American Art, often referred to simply as "the Whitney", is an art museum with a focus on 20th- and 21st-century American art. Located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street in New York City, the Whitney's permanent collection contains more than 18,000 works in a wide variety of...
, North Carolina Museum of Art
North Carolina Museum of Art
The North Carolina Museum of Art is an art museum in Raleigh, North Carolina, featuring paintings and sculpture representing 5,000 years of artistic work from antiquity to the present. The museum features more than 40 galleries as well as more than a dozen works of art in its Museum Park...
, The Arthur Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The Menil Collection, Fogg Art Museum
Fogg Art Museum
The Fogg Museum, opened to the public in 1896, is the oldest of Harvard University's art museums. The Fogg joins the Busch-Reisinger Museum and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum as part of the Harvard Art Museums....
, The Studio Museum in Harlem, The Library of Congress, Yale University Art Gallery
Yale University Art Gallery
The Yale University Art Gallery houses a significant and encyclopedic collection of art in several buildings on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Although it embraces all cultures and periods, the Gallery possesses especially renowned collections of early Italian painting,...
, Chase Manhattan Bank
Chase Manhattan Bank
JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., doing business as Chase, is a national bank that constitutes the consumer and commercial banking subsidiary of financial services firm JPMorgan Chase. The bank was known as Chase Manhattan Bank until it merged with J.P. Morgan & Co. in 2000...
, AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
, General Mills Corporation, UnitedHealth Group
UnitedHealth Group
UnitedHealth Group Incorporated is a diversified health and "well-being" company. Headquartered in Minnetonka, Minnesota, UnitedHealth Group offers a spectrum of products and services through two operating businesses: United Healthcare and Optum. Through its family of subsidiaries and divisions,...
, Southwestern Bell
Southwestern Bell
Southwestern Bell Telephone Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T. It does business as AT&T Southwest and other d/b/a names in its operating region.The company is currently headquartered in Dallas, Texas at One AT&T Plaza.-History:...
Corporation and Prudential Financial
Prudential Financial
The Prudential Insurance Company of America , also known as Prudential Financial, Inc., is a Fortune Global 500 and Fortune 500 company whose subsidiaries provide insurance, investment management, and other financial products and services to both retail and institutional customers throughout the...
Insurance Company of America.
He has exhibited in over 100 museums and art centers in the United States, France, Germany, Russia, Venezuela, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, People's Republic of China and Japan.
Born 1942, into the rural south
William T. Williams is a New York painter whose heritable roots in the South have remained a wellspring for his art throughout his career. His early childhood, spent in Spring Lake, North CarolinaSpring Lake, North Carolina
Spring Lake is a town in Cumberland County, North Carolina, United States. The 2010 census recorded the population at 11,964 people.- History :...
, provided the atmosphere for the sensible will an artist so often needs in the formative years. The colorful memories of a peaceful and wholesome lifestyle in the rural South followed Williams north.
David C. Driskell
David C. Driskell
David C. Driskell is a scholar in the field of African American art and an artist. Driskell is an emeritus professor at the University of Maryland, College Park....
, "An Unending Visual Odyssey"
New York: Late 50’s
The family's move to the North had a positive effect on Williams' future when his art talent was recognized by the head of a local community center who gave him a room there to use as a studio. He attended the School of Industrial Art in Manhattan (now the High School of Art and DesignHigh School of Art and Design
The High School of Art and Design is a Career and Technical Education high school located at 1075 Second Avenue, between 56th and 57th Streets in Manhattan, New York City, New York.It is operated by the New York City Department of Education...
), which held many of its classes at the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
In 1962 Williams entered Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute is a private art college in New York City located in Brooklyn, New York, with satellite campuses in Manhattan and Utica. Pratt is one of the leading undergraduate art schools in the United States and offers programs in Architecture, Graphic Design, History of Art and Design,...
to study painting. During his junior year there, he won a summer scholarship to The Skowhegan School of Art
The Skowhegan School of Art
The Skowhegan School of Art is a nine week summer artists' residency located in Madison, Maine and founded there in 1947.The school invites applicants to submit artworks as slides, which are then judged by a jury of school governors and artists. During the summer work period, artists are given...
and also received a National Endowment for the Arts
National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
, traveling grant. Before his brief stay was over, he had decided that he would become an artist.
Valerie J. Mercer, Behind Closed Doors
First Encounters: The Art World
After completing an M.F.A. degree program in painting at Yale UniversityYale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
in 1968, Williams quickly gained attention from the mainstream art world. The Museum of Modern Art acquired his composition "Elbert Jackson L.A.M.F., Part II in 1969, and by 1970 his work was being exhibited at The Foundation Maeght in the south of France, in a room with paintings by some of the superstars of abstract expressionism
Abstract expressionism
Abstract expressionism was an American post–World War II art movement. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve worldwide influence and put New York City at the center of the western art world, a role formerly filled by Paris...
: Willem De Kooning
Willem de Kooning
Willem de Kooning was a Dutch American abstract expressionist artist who was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands....
, Mark Rothko
Mark Rothko
Mark Rothko, born Marcus Rothkowitz , was a Russian-born American painter. He is classified as an abstract expressionist, although he himself rejected this label, and even resisted classification as an "abstract painter".- Childhood :Mark Rothko was born in Dvinsk, Vitebsk Province, Russian...
, Clifford Still and Philip Guston
Philip Guston
Philip Guston was a notable painter and printmaker in the New York School, which included many of the Abstract expressionists, such as Jackson Pollock and Willem De Kooning...
.
Valerie J. Mercer
Art School
His formal education at Pratt InstitutePratt Institute
Pratt Institute is a private art college in New York City located in Brooklyn, New York, with satellite campuses in Manhattan and Utica. Pratt is one of the leading undergraduate art schools in the United States and offers programs in Architecture, Graphic Design, History of Art and Design,...
and Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
in the 1960s in the visual arts curriculum prepared him well for the creative path his art would take in the next two decades. He moved consummately thereafter to investigate the physical boundaries one finds uncommon to explorations in the science of color, setting for himself the standard of achieving in his work an inherent completeness out of the reach of other painters.
David C. Driskell
David C. Driskell
David C. Driskell is a scholar in the field of African American art and an artist. Driskell is an emeritus professor at the University of Maryland, College Park....
The Late 60’s
Jewish Museum (New York)
The Jewish Museum of New York, an art museum and repository of cultural artifacts, is the leading Jewish museum in the United States. With over 26,000 objects, it contains the largest collection of art and Jewish culture outside of museums in Israel. The museum is housed at 1109 Fifth Avenue, in...
, and The Menil Collection in Houston, TX.
Founding The Artist in Residence at SMH
"The trustees of The Studio Museum in Harlem read my proposal, interviewed me and hired me to start an Artist-in-Residence program. That program had its start at the first site of the Museum over the liquor store on Fifth Avenue (2033 Fifth Avenue). It was a loft, a factory going out of business that had a lot of sewing machines in it. Mel EdwardsMel Edwards
Mel Edwards is an American sculptor, based in New York City. He has had more than a dozen one-person show exhibits and been in over four dozen group shows. He has had solo exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the New Jersey...
and I physically cleaned that space out for the Artist-in-Residence program. That was the beginning." I wanted to create a context, namely an Artist-in-Residence program, through which money could be funnelled to artists which would allow them to ponder the kinds of issues and questions that come up in a graduate program. Kinshasha Conwill, former director of the museum, says that the program "has become critical to the museum's identity and its contribution to the larger art arena."
Reese Palley Installation
Wiliam T. Williams first one-man show at New York's Reese Palley Gallery in 1971 resulted in the sale of every painting. That same year, The Whitney Museum of American ArtWhitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney Museum of American Art, often referred to simply as "the Whitney", is an art museum with a focus on 20th- and 21st-century American art. Located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street in New York City, the Whitney's permanent collection contains more than 18,000 works in a wide variety of...
exhibited his work twice; collectors such as AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
and General Mills
General Mills
General Mills, Inc. is an American Fortune 500 corporation, primarily concerned with food products, which is headquartered in Golden Valley, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. The company markets many well-known brands, such as Betty Crocker, Yoplait, Colombo, Totinos, Jeno's, Pillsbury, Green...
purchased his art; and his work was featured in both Life Magazine and Time Magazines.
Valerie J. Mercer
Returning Home
Williams returned home to the dusty unpaved roads of North CarolinaNorth Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
for the inspiration of a new palette, one born of the luster and glow of mica, false gold, and fox fire from earth's pulsating cover. Williams' relief from color-field painting was celebrated in the new works completed between 1971–1977, such as Equinox and Indian Summer. In 1975 William also took part in an artist in residence program at Fisk University
Fisk University
Fisk University is an historically black university founded in 1866 in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. The world-famous Fisk Jubilee Singers started as a group of students who performed to earn enough money to save the school at a critical time of financial shortages. They toured to raise funds to...
in Nashville, TN.
David C. Driskell
David C. Driskell
David C. Driskell is a scholar in the field of African American art and an artist. Driskell is an emeritus professor at the University of Maryland, College Park....
FESTAC Festival
In 1977, Williams participated in the second World Festival of Black Art and African Culture in LagosLagos
Lagos is a port and the most populous conurbation in Nigeria. With a population of 7,937,932, it is currently the third most populous city in Africa after Cairo and Kinshasa, and currently estimated to be the second fastest growing city in Africa...
, Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
, also known as FESTAC. This festival brought together more than 17,000 artists of African descent from 59 countries. It was the largest cultural event ever held on the African continent.
Early Exhibitions
In 1982 Williams was included in Recent Acquisitions of the Schomburg Collection at The Arthur Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York, NY. In 1984 William took part in a show titled Since the Harlem Renaissance, which traveled to The University of Maryland, Bucknell UniversityBucknell University
Bucknell University is a private liberal arts university located alongside the West Branch Susquehanna River in the rolling countryside of Central Pennsylvania in the town of Lewisburg, 30 miles southeast of Williamsport and 60 miles north of Harrisburg. The university consists of the College of...
and The State University of New York at Old Westbury
State University of New York at Old Westbury
The State University of New York College at Old Westbury is a university college that is part of the State University of New York system. The college is in Old Westbury, New York, with portions in the neighboring town of Jericho, New York...
. It also traveled to The Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute
Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute
The Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute is a regional fine arts center founded in 1919 and located in Utica, New York. The institute has three program divisions:*Museum of art*Performing arts*School of art-Museum of art:...
in Utica, NY and The Chrysler Museum of Art
Chrysler Museum of Art
The Chrysler Museum of Art is an art museum in the Ghent district of Norfolk, Virginia. The museum was originally founded in 1933 as the Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences. In 1971, automotive heir, Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. , donated most of his extensive collection to the museum...
in Norfolk, VA.
1987: Exhibit at the Smithsonian
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
. He also was a member of a show that took place in Tokyo, Japan entitled The Art of Black America in Japan. The international acclaim and fervor didn't stop there William also took part in Contemporary Visual Expressions, a show at The Anacostia Museum
Anacostia Museum
The Anacostia Community Museum is a Smithsonian Institution museum in the Anacostia neighborhood of Washington, D.C., United States, opened in 1967...
/Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
in Washington, DC.
Espiritu & Materia
William's traveled to VenezuelaVenezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
with painter Jack Whitten and sculptor's, Mel Edwards
Mel Edwards
Mel Edwards is an American sculptor, based in New York City. He has had more than a dozen one-person show exhibits and been in over four dozen group shows. He has had solo exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the New Jersey...
and Tyrone Mitchell for the opening of their exhibition Espiritu & Materia at The Museum of Visual Arts
Museum of Visual Arts
Museum of Visual Arts is a museum located on Nymphon Street in Heraklion, Crete, Greece.The museum was established in order to support cultural and artistic activity and to promote the work of Cretan artists....
, Alejandro Otero.
1992: Studio Museum in Harlem Artist Award
In 1992 William's was presented The Studio Museum in HarlemStudio Museum in Harlem
The Studio Museum in Harlem is an American contemporary art museum in the Harlem neighborhood of New York City, New York. It was founded in 1968 as the first such museum in the U.S. devoted to the art of African-Americans, specializing in 19th and 20th century work as well work of artists of...
Artist's Award for lifetime achievement and his role in creating the artist-in-residence program for the museum.
Working With Bob Blackburn
Bob BlackburnRobert Blackburn (artist)
Robert Blackburn was an African American artist, teacher and printmaker.Born Robert Hamilton Blackburn in Summit, New Jersey in 1920, he grew up in Harlem. He attended P.S...
first invited Williams to make a print at the Printmaking Workshop in 1975. Over the next 22 years, Williams collaborated with Blackburn to produce 19 editions, as well as, a number of unique print projects. Bob's friendship, expertise and advice was key to Williams development in the print medium. His last project at The Printmaking Workshop was in 1997 when he produced a number of monoprints underwritten by art patron, Major Thomas.
2000: To Conserve A Legacy
In 2000 Williams took part in an extensive traveling show entitled, To Conserve a Legacy: American Art from Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The show organized by The Addison Gallery of American ArtAddison Gallery of American Art
The Addison Gallery of American Art, as a department of Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, is an academic museum dedicated to collecting American art...
at Philips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts and The Studio Museum in Harlem in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
traveled to over 8 major museums including, The Corcoran Gallery of Art
Corcoran Gallery of Art
The Corcoran Gallery of Art is the largest privately supported cultural institution in Washington, DC. The museum's main focus is American art. The permanent collection includes works by Rembrandt, Eugène Delacroix, Edgar Degas, Thomas Gainsborough, John Singer Sargent, Claude Monet, Pablo...
, The Art Institute of Chicago, Fisk University
Fisk University
Fisk University is an historically black university founded in 1866 in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. The world-famous Fisk Jubilee Singers started as a group of students who performed to earn enough money to save the school at a critical time of financial shortages. They toured to raise funds to...
, Duke University
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
and Hampton
Hampton
-In Australia:*Hampton, Queensland*Hampton, Victoria*Hampton East, Victoria*Hampton Island*Hampton Park, Victoria-In Canada:*Hampton, New Brunswick*Hampton, Nova Scotia*Hampton, Ontario*Hampton, Prince Edward Island-In the United Kingdom:...
Universities Art museums.
Jazz at Lincoln Center
In 1994 Williams participated in a Jazz at Lincoln CenterJazz at Lincoln Center
Jazz at Lincoln Center is part of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. JALC's performing arts complex, Frederick P. Rose Hall, is located at West 60th Street and Broadway in New York City, slightly south of the main Lincoln Center campus and directly adjacent to Columbus Circle. Frederick P....
program titled, Swing Landscapes: Jazz Visualized. The intent of the Jazz Talk program was to explore what it is about jazz that makes its colors, rhythms and characters so attractive to the painter's eye. Williams, along with author, Alfred Appel, Jr. discussed the influence of jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
on modern art
Modern art
Modern art includes artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of...
. This program was part of a NY citywide celebration honoring the artist Romare Bearden
Romare Bearden
Romare Bearden was an African American artist and writer. He worked in several media including cartoons, oils, and collage.-Education:...
.
Receives Award for Lifetime Achievement
In 2005, Williams was invited to create a print at The Brandywine Workshop in conjunction with receiving The James Van Der Zee Award for Lifetime Achievement. Between July and late August he made five trips to Philadelphia staying several days at a time. These trips were unusually productive yielding four editions and a number of unique hand-colored prints. The Brandywine Workshop located in Phildalephia was founded in 1972 to promote interest and talent in printmaking while cultivating cultural diversity in the arts.Printmaking at Lafayette College
In 2006, Williams was a visiting scholar and artist in residence at Lafayette CollegeLafayette College
Lafayette College is a private coeducational liberal arts and engineering college located in Easton, Pennsylvania, USA. The school, founded in 1826 by James Madison Porter,son of General Andrew Porter of Norristown and citizens of Easton, first began holding classes in 1832...
's, Experimental Printmaking Institute (EPI), which included Williams lecture about his work sponsored by the David L. Sr. and Helen J. Temple Visiting Lecture Series Fund. During this year, William's work was also shown at The Studio Museum in Harlem in Energy and Experimentation: Black Artists and Abstraction 1964-1980.
2006: Receives North Carolina Governors Award
In 2006 William T. Williams received The North Carolina Governors Award for Fine Arts by Governor Mike EasleyMike Easley
Michael Francis "Mike" Easley is an American politician who served as the 72nd Governor of the U.S. state of North Carolina, from 2001 to 2009. He is member of the North Carolina Democratic Party and became the first North Carolina governor to admit to a felony in a deal that halted a lengthy...
. This is the highest civilian honor a state can bestow.
Awards and grants
- North Carolina Governor's Award for Fine Arts, NC 2006
- James Van Der Zee Award, Brandywine Workshop, Philadelphia, PA 2005
- Golden Key National Honor Society, Honorary Member 1998
- Joan Mitchell Foundation, Grant Award 1996
- Mid-Atlantic/NEA Regional Fellowship 1994
- The Studio Museum in Harlem Artist's Award 1992
- John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship 1987
- City University of New York, Faculty Research Award, Painting 1987, 1984, 1973
- Creative Arts Public Service Grant, Painting, New York 1985, 1981
- National Endowment for the Arts, Individual Artist Awa rd, Painting 1970
- Yale University, Grant for Graduate Study, New Haven, CT 1966
- National Endowment for the Arts, Traveling Grant 1965
External links
- Official Website of William T. Williams
- MOMA
- NY Mag
- Observer
- Lafayette
- http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/04/07/arts/stud.2.190.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/07/arts/design/07stud.html%3Fn%3DTop/Reference/Times%2520Topics/Organizations/S/Studio%2520Museum%2520in%2520Harlem&h=233&w=190&sz=38&hl=en&start=2&um=1&tbnid=PgwiSizQrWec8M:&tbnh=109&tbnw=89&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dwilliam%2Bt%2Bwilliams%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26sa%3DNNY Times]
- Local Government
