Skip to main content

Aubrey Williams Paintings

Guyanese, 1926-1990

Aubrey Williams, Guyanese artist. Williams has recently been reassessed by the Tate and Manchester Art Galleries and been the subject of television documentaries. 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. 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 organizer. Together they extended the WPAC beyond central Georgetown by setting up auxiliary classes throughout the East Coast. Williams himself established new classes in the agricultural regions in which he was working, and would often lead classes when Burrowes was unavailable. The classes were held at least twice weekly. 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 onward, Williams worked in studios in Jamaica and Florida as well as the UK. It was during this period that he produced three of his most well-known series of paintings, Shostakovich, The Olmec Maya and Now and Cosmos. 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. This was the first time that his work was exhibited in a mainstream public art gallery in the UK. and featured his Cosmos series. In the words of Geoffrey MacLean, "It showed the vast span of Williams's spiritual and intellectual development, from the birds of Guyana and the environment of his childhood, through the memory of his Amerindian heritage, culminating in an appreciation of universal expression through music and spiritual realization through the cosmos." Williams died in London on 17 April 1990, aged 63.

to
1
1
Overall Width
to
Overall Height
to
2
1
1
1
1
1
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
5
754
753
746
672
2
2
Artist: Aubrey Williams
“Blue Macaw, 1975” by Aubrey Williams, Guyanese Tropical Bird Gouache Signed
“Blue Macaw, 1975” by Aubrey Williams, Guyanese Tropical Bird Gouache Signed

“Blue Macaw, 1975” by Aubrey Williams, Guyanese Tropical Bird Gouache Signed

By Aubrey Williams

Located in Yardley, PA

This striking gouache captures Williams’s lifelong fascination with the natural world, filtered through his expressive modernist sensibility. The bird emerges from a hazy gray field,...

Category

1970s Expressionist Aubrey Williams Paintings

Materials

Paper, Gouache

Exceptional 20th century abstract oil painting by Aubrey Williams, 'Demerara'
Exceptional 20th century abstract oil painting by Aubrey Williams, 'Demerara'

Exceptional 20th century abstract oil painting by Aubrey Williams, 'Demerara'

By Aubrey Williams

Located in Colfax, CA

Exceptional 20th century abstract oil and mixed media on stretched canvas by Guyanese artist Aubrey Williams. Aubrey Williams, (1926-1990), was a Guyanese artist who spent most of hi...

Category

1960s Aubrey Williams Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Mixed Media

Related Items
19th Century Torero and Bull Oil Painting, Figurative Expressionism
19th Century Torero and Bull Oil Painting, Figurative Expressionism

19th Century Torero and Bull Oil Painting, Figurative Expressionism

Located in Sitges, Barcelona

Title: Torero and Bull Artist: José María Tuser Vázquez (1919-1986) Technique: Oil on canvas mounted on board Dimensions: 18.9 x 15 inches Framing: Unframed Art Movement: Costumbrismo, Figurative Expressionism Theme: Bullfighting Date of Creation: Second half of the 20th century DESCRIPTION The painting Torero and Bull depicts a classic bullfighting scene, where a matador, elegantly dressed in a golden and violet traje de luces, performs a pass with the cape while the bull, wounded with banderillas, bows toward the ground. The composition conveys dynamism and tension, emphasizing the drama of the moment with loose and expressive brushstrokes. The background is rendered in warm, diffused tones, contrasting with the deep black of the bull and the vivid hues of the cape. The thick brushwork and vibrant oil application enhance the sense of movement and emotion in the scene, a distinctive feature of Tuser Vázquez’s bullfighting paintings. ARTIST'S BIOGRAPHY José María Tuser Vázquez (Barcelona, 1919 - 1986) was a Spanish painter specializing in bullfighting themes. He trained at the School of Arts and Crafts in Barcelona, where he developed a strong foundation in drawing and painting. From 1947 onwards, he dedicated his artistic production to tauromaquia, creating posters, illustrations, and paintings that captured the intensity of the bullfighting spectacle. He was a regular contributor to the magazine El Ruedo and designed a series of postcards featuring traditional Spanish costumes for Editorial Artigas in the 1940s. His work has been auctioned numerous times and is highly valued by collectors of bullfighting art...

Category

1960s Expressionist Aubrey Williams Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Board

Yellow Tail I
Yellow Tail I

Sherron FrancisYellow Tail I, 1979

$24,000

H 40 in W 76.5 in

Yellow Tail I

By Sherron Francis

Located in Austin, TX

Waterline Fine Art, Austin, TX is pleased to present the following work: Acrylic and mixed media on canvas. Signed, titled, and dated verso. 40 x 76.5 in. 41.75 x 78.25 in. (framed) Custom framed in a solid, unfinished maple floater. Provenance Watson/de Nagy & Company, Houston Private Collection, New York Sherron Francis was born in 1940, in Downers Grove, IL outside of Chicago. She originally enrolled at the University of Oklahoma, but later transferred to the Kansas City Art Institute to focus more on art. Initially, Francis' practice was focused on figurative art, with visiting professor and renowned modern realist Philip Pearlstein remarking on Francis’ draftsman acumen. In the early 1960s, art dealers and gallerists from New York would visit the Institute to entice promising artists by offering scholarships and financial aid. Because such financial arrangements were only made for men, Francis had to persuade the school's leadership to allow for women to also be eligible for merit-based aid. Her advocacy was successful, and she ultimately graduated from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1963. She would then proceed to obtain her MFA from the University of Indiana, before assuming a teaching position at Eastern Michigan University. In 1968, with only $300 on hand, Francis moved to 16 Waverly Place in SoHo, New York. The neighborhood was a hotbed for young AbEx artists of the day, and she quickly befriended the likes of Peter Reginato, Walter Darby Bannard, Michael Steiner, Peter Young, Peter Bradley...

Category

1970s Post-War Aubrey Williams Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Mixed Media, Acrylic

Horsewoman" is a free copy from K.Bryulov's painting
Horsewoman" is a free copy from K.Bryulov's painting

Horsewoman" is a free copy from K.Bryulov's painting

Located in Zofingen, AG

"Horsewoman" is a free copy from K.Bryulov's painting "landscape of the Volsky Lily. A beautiful and amazing painting is painted according to all the canons of painting. 8 layers of ...

Category

2010s Expressionist Aubrey Williams Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Puppy Dog & Kitten Greeting Card Illustration painting (Children's room decor)
Puppy Dog & Kitten Greeting Card Illustration painting (Children's room decor)

Puppy Dog & Kitten Greeting Card Illustration painting (Children's room decor)

Located in Wilton Manors, FL

Ferd Sondern (b.1923) Puppy and Bluebird, 1977. Pencil, gouache and watercolor on illustration board. Complete panel measures 7 x 7.5 inches. Signed lower left. Credited on verso...

Category

1970s Realist Aubrey Williams Paintings

Materials

Watercolor, Gouache, Illustration Board

Untitled
Untitled

Michael GoldbergUntitled, 1987

$65,000

H 52.75 in W 47.75 in

Untitled

By Michael Goldberg

Located in Austin, TX

Waterline Fine Art, Austin, TX is pleased to present the following work: Oil, pastel, and paper collage on canvas. Signed and dated verso. 52.75 x 47.75 in. 54 x 49 in. (framed) Gilded floater frame. Provenance Compass Rose, Chicago Born Sylvan Irwin Goldberg in 1924 and raised in the Bronx, Michael Goldberg was an important figure in American Abstract Expressionism, who began taking art classes at the Art Students League in 1938. A gifted student, Goldberg finished high school at the age of 14 and enrolled in City College. He soon found New York’s jazz scene to be a more compelling environment, and he began skipping classes in favor of the Harlem jazz clubs near campus. Goldberg’s love of jazz would become a lifelong passion and a key component to his approach to composition in his paintings. From 1940 to 1942, like many of the leading artists of the New York School, Goldberg studied with Hans Hofmann. In 1943, he put his pursuit of painting on hold and enlisted in the U.S. Army. Serving in North Africa, Burma, and India, Goldberg received a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star before being discharged in 1946. After his service, he traveled and worked in Venezuela before returning to the United States, settling back in New York and resuming studies with Hofmann and at the Art Students League. Living downtown and frequenting the Cedar Bar, Goldberg befriended many of the artists of the New York School. In 1951, his work was included in the groundbreaking Ninth Street Show, co-organized by Leo Castelli, Conrad Marca-Relli, and the Eighth Street Club, and featuring the work of - among others - Hofmann, Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Franz Kline. In 1953, the Tibor de Nagy...

Category

1980s Abstract Expressionist Aubrey Williams Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Pastel, Mixed Media, Oil, Handmade Paper

Idyllic Landscape with Ox and Figures
Idyllic Landscape with Ox and Figures

Idyllic Landscape with Ox and Figures

Located in London, GB

'Idyllic Landscape with Ox and Figures', pencil and gouache on art paper, by Germaine Hageman (circa 1930s-40s). This is a sensitive and quietly evocative drawing by the Belgian arti...

Category

1930s Aubrey Williams Paintings

Materials

Paper, Gouache, Pencil

No Name 55, Mixed Media Painting on Linen
No Name 55, Mixed Media Painting on Linen

No Name 55, Mixed Media Painting on Linen

By Andrea Gallotti

Located in New York City, NY

Italian painter Andrea Gallotti’s practice is rooted in the quiet rigor of repetition, a deliberate return to a gesture so simple it borders on the childlike, yet so subtle that its ...

Category

2010s Contemporary Aubrey Williams Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Mixed Media, Oil

'Russian Invasion'  HUGE Original Painting on Canvas by Artist Fahri Aldin- 1950
'Russian Invasion'  HUGE Original Painting on Canvas by Artist Fahri Aldin- 1950

'Russian Invasion' HUGE Original Painting on Canvas by Artist Fahri Aldin- 1950

By Fahri Aldin

Located in Belleville, CA

A Stunning, huge, Original painting on canvas by Canadian artist Fahri Aldin. This One of a Kind Masterpiece measures an impressive 64 inches in height and 172 inches wide or 163 x ...

Category

2010s Contemporary Aubrey Williams Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Paint, Coating, Varnish, Cotton Canvas, Mixed Media, Acrylic

Godzilla like Dinosaur Monster, SciFi, Science Fiction Cover Illustration
Godzilla like Dinosaur Monster, SciFi, Science Fiction Cover Illustration

Godzilla like Dinosaur Monster, SciFi, Science Fiction Cover Illustration

By Paul Wenzel

Located in Miami, FL

Beautiful Godzilla-like monster illustration from 1961. Wenzel was a prolific Disney Artist for decades. The work is beautifully matted and framed and looks better in person. Sign...

Category

1960s American Modern Aubrey Williams Paintings

Materials

Mixed Media, Gouache, Tempera, Illustration Board

'The Gathering' HUGE Original Painting on Canvas by Artist Fahri Aldin (1950)
'The Gathering' HUGE Original Painting on Canvas by Artist Fahri Aldin (1950)

'The Gathering' HUGE Original Painting on Canvas by Artist Fahri Aldin (1950)

By Fahri Aldin

Located in Belleville, CA

A Stunning, huge, Original painting on canvas by Canadian artist Fahri Aldin. This One of a Kind Masterpiece measures an impressive 80 inches in height and 137 inches wide or 203 x ...

Category

2010s Contemporary Aubrey Williams Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Paint, Coating, Varnish, Cotton Canvas, Mixed Media, Acrylic

'Messenger of Peace' HUGE Original Painting on Canvas by Artist Fahri Aldin 1950
'Messenger of Peace' HUGE Original Painting on Canvas by Artist Fahri Aldin 1950

'Messenger of Peace' HUGE Original Painting on Canvas by Artist Fahri Aldin 1950

By Fahri Aldin

Located in Belleville, CA

A Stunning, Huge, Original painting on canvas by Canadian artist Fahri Aldin. This One of a Kind Masterpiece measures an impressive 80 inches in height and 164 inches wide or 203 x ...

Category

2010s Contemporary Aubrey Williams Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Paint, Coating, Varnish, Cotton Canvas, Mixed Media, Acrylic

Aubrey Williams paintings for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Aubrey Williams paintings available for sale on 1stDibs.