Aubrey Williams (1926-1990)

1926 - 1990

Aubrey Williams was born in 1926 in Georgetown, Guyana’s capital city, the son of a civil servant and eldest of 11 children. He began drawing as a child taking lessons from a restorer of religious paintings in Guyanese churches. He joined the Working People’s Art Class at the princely age of 12.

Guyana was a British colony in the days of Williams’ youth, an important producer in the sugar industry. Williams trained as an agronomist and in 1944 started working as an agricultural field officer on the coast. He encouraged the exploited farmers to claim their rights against the British owned sugar plantations. Seen as a troublemaker, he was soon banished to the remote north-west rainforest settlement of Hosororo. “It was like sending someone to Siberia” he commented. However, he met Warao Amerindians whose history and culture came to greatly influence his artistic work. He listened to the local people talking about colour and form. He often depicts a bone-like claw or glyph which is recorded in the Warao’s pictoral language. His utilisation of this symbol depicted the violence of humanity, especially of the colonising forces. He speaks of “strange, very tense, slightly violent shape, which haunted me all my life, a subconscious thing coming out”. This formed the basis of a lifelong interest in pre-Columbian culture and artefacts.

Williams was also interested in ornithology, mostly predators, raptors and waterfowl, his work of which can be seen in the personal archive in the Tate Gallery. He describes the birds as “possessing qualities ... show more

Aubrey Williams was born in 1926 in Georgetown, Guyana’s capital city, the son of a civil servant and eldest of 11 children. He began drawing as a child taking lessons from a restorer of religious paintings in Guyanese churches. He joined the Working People’s Art Class at the princely age of 12.

Guyana was a British colony in the days of Williams’ youth, an important producer in the sugar industry. Williams trained as an agronomist and in 1944 started working as an agricultural field officer on the coast. He encouraged the exploited farmers to claim their rights against the British owned sugar plantations. Seen as a troublemaker, he was soon banished to the remote north-west rainforest settlement of Hosororo. “It was like sending someone to Siberia” he commented. However, he met Warao Amerindians whose history and culture came to greatly influence his artistic work. He listened to the local people talking about colour and form. He often depicts a bone-like claw or glyph which is recorded in the Warao’s pictoral language. His utilisation of this symbol depicted the violence of humanity, especially of the colonising forces. He speaks of “strange, very tense, slightly violent shape, which haunted me all my life, a subconscious thing coming out”. This formed the basis of a lifelong interest in pre-Columbian culture and artefacts.

Williams was also interested in ornithology, mostly predators, raptors and waterfowl, his work of which can be seen in the personal archive in the Tate Gallery. He describes the birds as “possessing qualities

we can only admire, the gift of direction and control during migration”.

After two years of living immersed in nature, he returned to the capital to find that many of his friends had joined the Peoples Progressive Party, fighting for Guyana’s independence. Once again, the government saw him as a political agitator and after a shooting on a plantation, he left the country for his own safety, only returning once it had gained independence.

He migrated to Britain in 1952, won a scholarship for an agricultural course at Leicester University. He was disappointed with the teaching standards, so dropped out and travelled across Europe. As he did so, he came face to face with German Expressionist Art. He met Picasso who did not see him as an artist but more as a model to use for his own work.

In 1954 Williams settled in London and studied at St Martins School of Art. He attended and exhibited at art galleries across the city. He was most influenced by a couple of exhibitions on Abstract Expressionism held at the Tate Gallery. “Modern art in the US” 1956 and “New American painting” in 1959. He referred to Jackson Pollock as “our God” and referred to Kline, Newman, Rothko and de Kooning as “great”. The work of Arshile Gorky had a very profound effect on Williams. Gorky had fled Armenia during the Turkish persecution, settling in America in 1920 and was interested in natural forms and displacement, like Williams himself.

In the late 1950’s, Williams met Denis Bowen, the founder of the New Vision Group and director of the New Vision Gallery in London from 1951 to 1966. It played an important role in post war British art, particularly abstract art illustrating an unusual openness in artists from all round the world. Williams exhibited a number of paintings with the gallery in 1958 and had solo shows there in August 1959 and November 1960. His work sold well with positive reviews from art critics and he had invitations to exhibit in Paris, Milan & Chicago. However, success lasted a mere two years and he then felt marginalised from the British art world, feeling that it was indifferent, institutional and hostile. He was made to feel like an outsider, isolated both physically and intellectually.

In 1963 he exhibited 40 paintings at the Commonwealth Biennale of Abstract Art at the Commonwealth Institute. He was awarded the only prize of £50 donated by the artist Frank Avray Wilson. In 1965 he was awarded the Commonwealth Prize for Painting which was presented by Queen Elizabeth II.

From 1966 – 1972 Williams played a leading role in founding the “Caribbean Artist’s Movement”. This promoted work of artists, writers, dramatists, film makers, thinkers and musician from the Caribbean diaspora.

In 1966 he went with his wife, Eve Lafargue and 18 month old daughter to Guyana to celebrate independence.