Aubrey Williams
He was best known for his large, oil-on-canvas paintings, which combine elements of abstract expressionism with forms, images and symbols inspired by the pre-Columbian art of indigenous peoples of the Americas.
After training to be an agronomist, he worked as an Agricultural Field Officer for eight years, initially on the sugar plantations of the East Coast and later in the North-West region of the country—an area inhabited primarily by the indigenous Warao people.
Following his first exhibition in London in 1954, he became an increasingly significant figure in the post-war British avant-garde art scene, particularly through his association with Denis Bowen's New Vision Centre Gallery.
From 1970 onwards, Williams worked in studios in Jamaica and Florida as well as the UK, and it was during this period that he produced three of his best-known series of paintings: Shostakovich (1969–1981), The Olmec-Maya and Now (1981–1985) and Cosmos (1989).
As Cane-Farming Officer, he was expected to "smooth out relations" between the owners and managers of the sugar plantations and the workers, without "rocking the boat".
[15] Shortly after he qualified as an Agricultural Officer, Williams contacted E. R. Burrowes and returned to the Working People's Art Class, but this time as a teacher and organiser.
[16][17] Although he had technically been promoted, Williams initially viewed his redeployment as a form of punishment for his activism on behalf of the sugar-cane farmers.
Listening to the Warao talk about colour and form totally transformed his understanding of art; and his experiences in this region instigated an interest in pre-Columbian culture and artefacts which subsequently became "the core of [his] artistic activity".
The Independence Movement in British Guiana was gaining strength, and most of his friends had joined the People's Progressive Party (PPP), which was at the forefront of the struggle.
This association alone raised suspicion among British colonists, prompting an investigation into Williams' early work for the Department of Agriculture, and he was ultimately accused of having founded "farmer's communes" on the East Coast.
[9] He took up accommodation at Hans Crescent in London – an area that was, according to him, populated by the "colonial elite": "the sons of Maharajas, the upper middle classes" – and enrolled on a course in Agricultural Engineering at the University of Leicester.
The other founding members of the movement were: Kamau Brathwaite, Wilson Harris, Louis James, Evan Jones, John La Rose, Ronald Moody, Orlando Patterson and Andrew Salkey.
It began as a series of small, private meetings held in members' homes but quickly expanded into larger, public events.
[37] Williams was a regular at CAM events and played an important pioneering role in the movement, "which was to have an inestimable influence on the British art scene for the next fifteen years".
[40][41] He also attended the first CAM conference in September 1967 at the University of Kent, and presented a paper entitled "The Predicament of the Artist in the Caribbean".
"It helped create an intellectual atmosphere for everyone to be creative and relate to each other", he said, and provided an "international platform" through which individual members "came to know what was happening in the rest of the Commonwealth" and through which he personally met other artists "from Africa, from India and from many parts of the world".
[45] While Williams maintained a base in London until the end of his life, from 1970 onward he spent large amounts of time working overseas in Jamaica, Florida and, less frequently, Guyana.
After this initial visit, he spent several months in Jamaica every year and was ultimately appointed Artist-in-Residence at the Olympia Art Centre in Kingston.
[54] In 1976, he completed two murals in Jamaica, at the School of Hope for Mentally Handicapped Children and at the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Swallowfield Road.
[55] In 1977 he exhibited work as a participant in the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (Festac '77) held in Lagos, Nigeria, from 15 January to 12 February, together with other UK-based Black artists, including Winston Branch, Ronald Moody, Uzo Egonu, Armet Francis, Emmanuel Taiwo Jegede and Donald Locke.
[56] In May 1978, Williams completed a mural in Howe Hall at the University of Dalhousie, which was commissioned by the Prime Minister of Guyana at that time, Forbes Burnham.
[53] After his Shostakovich exhibition at London's Commonwealth Institute in 1981 received scant coverage in the national press, Guy Brett wrote in Index on Censorship: "Aubrey Williams is able, to paint with epic power on a large scale.
It begins to be clear what Williams means when he describes himself as an 'exile' in this country, and how his situation is linked with the way the cultural establishment here boycotts artists who don't fit in with a traditional image of British art.
[59][60] In 1989, paintings by Williams were included in an exhibition at the Hayward Gallery entitled The Other Story, which focused on the work of African and Asian artists in post-World War II Britain.
[63] The 1990 book by Anne Walmsley entitled Guyana Dreaming: The Art of Aubrey Williams, which the artist saw in manuscript 10 days before his death, was the first significant publication devoted to his work.
[64] On 19 January 1996, a half-day seminar on Aubrey Williams was organised by the Institute of International Visual Art (InIVA) to coincide with a showing of The Cosmos Series at the October Gallery (where the last solo exhibition that took place during his lifetime was held),[65][66] featuring contributions by Stuart Hall, Anne Walmsley, Rasheed Araeen and Wilson Harris, plus a screening of Imruh Caesar's 1986 documentary on Williams, The Mark of the Hand.
[77] While economic factors had originally limited the size of canvas he used, he gradually progressed onto ever-larger canvases, and from 1970 onward also painted a number of large murals.
