Aubrey Williams
Guyanese - London-based Artist (1926 - 1990)
Embedded Files
TURTLE
Oil Painting on Canvas
(From MAYA ZODIAC)
1974
Signed by artist
30 x 24"
34 w x 28" h
34 w x 28" h
1974
Similar - Aubrey Williams, Eugene Hyde & Barrington Watson, Gallery Barrington, Kingston, Jamaica, 1977; Shostakovich: An Exhibition of Paintings by Aubrey Williams Inspired by the Music and Life of Dmitri Shostakovich, Royal Festival Hall, South Bank Centre, London, UK
Williams worked on around thirty paintings expressing his passionate encounter with the music of Dimitri Shostakovich. In the other series, entitled Olmec-Maya (1981-1984), Williams created some thirty works which drew on his deep knowledge of historic Mesoamerican cultures, which he merged with abstraction and figuration.
Maya Series "T"
Oil Painting
1970
Signed by artist
48 x 36
Framed: 48 3/4 x 36 3/4
ABOUT the ARTIST
ABOUT the ARTIST
Link to visual story of the life and works of Aubrey Williams
Link to visual story of the life and works of Aubrey Williams
Aubrey Williams exhibition at October Gallery
Aubrey Williams
Born in 1926, Georgetown, Guyana. Died in 1990, London, UK.
(8 May 1926 – 17 April 1990) was a Guyanese artist. 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.
Born in Georgetown in British Guiana (now Guyana), Williams began drawing and painting at an early age. He received informal art tutoring from the age of three, and joined the Working Peoples' Art Class at the age of 12. After training as 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. His time among the Warao had a dramatic impact on his artistic approach, and initiated the complex obsession with pre-Columbian arts and cultures that ran throughout his artistic career.
Williams left Guyana at the height of the Independence Movement in 1952, and moved to the United Kingdom. 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. In 1966, he came together with a group of London-based Caribbean artists and intellectuals to found the Caribbean Artists Movement, which served as a dynamic hub of cultural events and activity until its dissolution in 1972. 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).
At Auction
At Auction
2020 estimated value of Expression V $500-800 was sold for over $11,000
Expression V, 1964
oil on canvas
20" x 24" Signed
Estimate
500 - 800 GBP
Realized Price
8,500 GBP*
Auction Venue
Burstow & Hewett Abbey Auction Gallery
Sale Date Sep 17, 2020
Christie's - Guayana X sold for $2,500 https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-6237594
Aubrey Williams was born in Georgetown, Guyana, and began painting and drawing at an early age, joining the Working People’s Art Class (the first established art institution in Guyana) at the age of 12. Williams left Guyana at the height of the Independence Movement in 1952, and sailed to London. He trained at St Martin’s School of Art, and enjoyed his first exhibition in 1954. With his unique visual vocabulary informed by his Guyanese heritage, and his extensive travels in Europe – where he met Pablo Picasso, and Albert Camus amongst others – Williams soon became an increasingly significant figure in the post-war British avant-garde art scene.
As a founder member of the Carribean Artist’s Movement, Williams was deeply embedded in the explosion of creativity generated by the influx of Carribean writers, artists and intellectuals to London at the time. His paintings were widely exhibited from the early 1960s, placing him as a central figure in challenging the historic white dominance in the British art establishment. Drawing influence from Abstract Expressionism, imagery from ancient Mayan and indigenous Warrau cultures, and from the symphonies of Shostakovich, Williams’ oeuvre has eschewed classification. His work is held in important public collections including Tate, London, and Arts Council of England, and his paintings have been the recent subject of major exhibitions at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (2010), and Tate Britain (2007).
AUBREY WILLIAMS
AUBREY WILLIAMS
Born in 1926, Georgetown, Guyana. Died in 1990, London, UK.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2018
Aubrey Williams, October Gallery, London, UK
2015
Realm of the Sun, October Gallery, London, UK
2014-18
Faculty of English Library, Churchill College, Cambridge, UK
2013
Aubrey Williams: Shostakovich Symphonies and Quartets, Hales Gallery, London, UK
2010
Aubrey Williams: Now and Coming Time, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK; October Gallery, London, UK
2008
Rotunda Space, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK
2007
Goodison Room, Tate Britain, London, UK
2006
October Gallery, London, UK
2004
October Gallery, London, UK
1998
Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, UK
1996-97
Harlem & Caribbean Cultural Center, New York, USA
1996
Castellani House, Georgetown, Guyana
1995-96
Cosmos Series, October Gallery, London,
1992
Endangered Birds, Henry Sotheran Ltd (fine books & prints), London, UK
1990
Aubrey Williams Celebration, Commonwealth Institute, London, UK
A Tribute to Aubrey Williams, Guyana Museum, Georgetown, Guyana
A Tribute to Aubrey Williams, Contemporary Art Centre, Kingston, Jamaica
1989
De Graaf Fine Art, Chicago USA
October Gallery, London, UK
1988
Contemporary Arts Centre, Kingston, Jamaica
Shibuya Tokyo Plaza, Tokyo, Japan
1986/87/88
October Gallery, London, UK
1985
The Olmec-Maya & Now, Commonwealth Institute Art Gallery, London, UK
Goldsmith College Gallery, London, UK
Cosmos, Gallery Barrington, Kingston, Jamaica
Contemporary Arts Centre, Kingston, Jamaica
1984
October Gallery, London, UK
Paintings on the music of Dmitri Shostakovich, Royal Festival Hall, London, UK
1981
Commonwealth Institute, London, UK
1976
Gallery Barrington, Kingston, Jamaica
1975
Olympia International Art Centre, Kingston, Jamaica
1974
The Warehouse, Kingston, Jamaica
1973/74
Little Gallery, Kingston, Jamaica
1973
1973 Nicholas Treadwell Gallery, London, UK
1972
Illinois Centre, Chicago, USA
Carifesta ’72; Critchlow Labour College, Georgetown, Guyana
1971
Camden Arts Centre, London, UK
1970
John Peartree Gallery, Kingston, Jamaica
1969
Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter, UK
1967
Van Mildert College, Durham University, Durham, UK
1965
Commonwealth Institute, London, UK
1964
Forum Galleries, Bristol, UK
1963
Grabowski Gallery, London, UK
Gallery 60, Colchester, UK
Ritchie Hendricks Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
1961
Richmond Hill Gallery, Richmond, UK
Galleria Pater, Milan, Italy
1959
St Catherine’s College, Oxford, UK
1958/59/60
New Vision Centre Gallery, London, UK
https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/news/auction-record-for-guyanese-artist-aubrey-williams-set-on-thesaleroomcom
Although four of his works are now in the Tate Gallery’s collection, the artist’s works have rarely been available on the secondary market. The previous highest price for the artist at auction was the £3800 for The Presence of Kunpipa sold at Tennants in February 2020. However, his auction record was broken three times at this summer.
Most recently, the record was surpassed twice on August 20 when two oils emerged for sale at Burstow & Hewett in Battle on August 20.
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