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Sue Williams (painter)

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Sue Williams
Born
Chicago, Illinois
NationalityAmerican
Known forContemporary art
MovementPainting, feminism

Sue Williams is an American artist born in 1954. She came to prominence in the early 1980s, with works that echoed and argued with the dominant postmodern feminist aesthetic of the time. In the years since, her focus has never waned yet her aesthetic interests have moved toward abstraction along with her subject matter and memories. She lives and works in New York.

Early life and education

Williams was born in 1954 in Olympia Fields, a suburb of Chicago. Her father worked as office manager for a small newspaper, and her mother worked for the Army Corps of Engineers, preparing reports.[1]  She began drawing as a child; in high school she found inspiration in the whimsical folk art of Jim Nutt and H.C. Westermann.[2] Williams attended the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, where she made small paintings populated with stick figures that she has referred to as “psychedelic doodles.”[3] She graduated with a B.F.A. in 1976, and spent much of the following decade moving back and forth between Chicago and New York City.

Work

Williams’ initial work in the 1980s, according to John Miller of Artforum, was of a “funky style” “epitomized by a willful naivete” that placed her alongside contemporaries Mike Kelley, Jessica Diamond, and Lynda Barry. “Williams’ eloquence rests on her ability to summon kitsch sources (i.e., advertising, illustration, cartoons) while holding them at arm’s length.”[4] Her first shows in SoHo in the late 80s sold nothing, but she was on the crest of the wave of political and conceptual art. However, according to Williams, "I got really dissed by critics. 'Whiny, self-indulgent, victim art,' they said.''[5]

Her work began to make a splash in the early 1990s though; her crude, rebarbative, sometimes outlandishly funny works about the tribulations of women were part autobiography (she had been a battered woman), part vented rage, part satire.[6] With a no-holds-barred attack on misogyny and violence toward women, Williams committed herself to subject matter that most artists reared in a male-dominated society still refuse to go near: the ritualistic need experienced by many of us, both male and female, to build ourselves up by tearing women down.[7] Works like That's a Load Of (1991), Victim Ranting (1992), and A Funny Thing Happened (1992) are emblematic of Williams' tragicomic combination of brutal reality and unexpectedly loopy humor. Her crude cartoon style at this time reflected her desire to convince viewers that the situation of women is often "so horrible it's ridiculous."[8] In Irresistible (1992), a full-scale sculpture of a battered woman, Williams adds insult to injury by dotting the figure with words of abuse -- "Just leave if you're really not getting off" and "I didn't do that. Have you been seeing someone else?"[9] Her work became highly Expressionist, often combining text in her paintings. Her violent images became more abstract, and in 1993, she was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship.[10]

The late 90s and early 2000s brought another stylistic change, as Williams' works became more monochromatic, with her brushstrokes an essential theme. Texts had vanished entirely, images had fragmented, and the size of her paintings increased dramatically. A nod to influences Willem de Kooning and Joan Mitchell are indicative in works like Parkett Verlag (1997), Exercising with Orange (2000), Abstract Painter (2002), and Re-uptake Inhibitors (2002). Said art critic Michael Kimmelman in 2001, "Now she was doing cheerful confetti splashes of red, yellow and blue, calligraphic pirouettes, sweeping curves and minor skirmishes of linear forms, mostly spare on big white canvases. It was as if she wanted to see how far she could push traditional abstraction before alienating her first audience."[11]

Most recently, Williams creates large scale paintings, with vibrant swaths of bright colors and abstract shapes. Philip Zelikow, Historian (2013), Home and Beefsteak (2017), and Architectural Digest (2018) displays an exuberant style, about which Williams has said: "They’re pretty goofy. I paint whatever hits me as amusing or attractive. These paintings seem to be liberated. They ended up being more about painting, even though they just seem like goofy parts pulled together. A painting is done when I like it."[12]

Exhibitions

Sue Williams' first appearance (of three) at the Whitney Biennial was in 1993, and featured the paintings Are You Pro-Porn or Anti-Porn? and It's a New Age, and the sculpture Irresistible. Roberta Smith of the New York Times referred to her work as "sleazy cartoonish paintings [that] skewer male domination."[13]

The Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art presented Sue Williams: A Fine Line, the first solo exhibition in the United states devoted to Williams' work, with over thirty-five pieces on display. The exhibition opened March 17, 2002 and continued through June 16, 2002.[14]

Sue Williams: Art for the Institution and the Home was a solo show held at Secession in Vienna, and featured a decade's worth of Williams work. The exhibition opened November 22, 2002 and continued through January 26, 2003.

Sue Williams is represented by 303 Gallery, New York; Regen Projects, Los Angeles; and Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich.

The following is a list of selected exhibitions:

  • Whitney Biennial, New York (1993)[15]
  • Whitney Biennial, New York (1995)[16]
  • Whitney Biennial, New York (1997)[17]
  • Contemporary Art Project, Seattle Art Museum (2002)[18]
  • Art for the Institution and the Home, Secession, Vienna (2002)[19]
  • Defamation of Character, MoMA P.S.1 New York (2006)[20]
  • Comic Abstraction: Image Breaking, Image Making, MoMA, New York (2007)[21]
  • The Third Mind, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2007)[22]
  • Project for the New American Century, David Zwirner, New York (2008)[23]
  • Rebelle: Art and Feminism 1969-2009, Museum voor Moderne Kunst Arnhem, Netherlands (2009)[24]
  • Visceral Bodies, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver (2010)[25]
  • Figuring Color, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (2012)[26]
  • Comic Future, Ballroom Marfa, TX (2013)[27]
  • Take It or Leave It: Institution, Image, Ideology, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2014)[28]
  • America is Hard to See, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2015)[29]
  • Painting 2.0 Expression in the Information Age, Museum Brandhorst, Munich (2015)[30]
  • Greater New York, MoMA PS1, New York (2015)[31]
  • Better Than de Kooning, Villa Merkel, Esslingen (2015)[32]
  • Don’t Look Back: The 1990s, MoCA, Los Angeles (2016)[33]
  • Zeitgeist, MAMCO, Geneva (2017)[34]

Collections

  • Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC[35]
  • Los Angeles Museum of Modern Art, CA[36]
  • Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, CA[37]
  • Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY[38]
  • New Museum, New York, NY[39]
  • Santa Barbara Art Museum, Santa Barbara, CA[40]
  • Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA[41]
  • Whitney Museum, New York, NY[42]

Awards

  • 1993 Guggenheim Fellowship

Publications

  • Sue Williams (2000), published by 303 Gallery.[43]
  • A Fine Line (2003), published by Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art.[44]
  • Art for the Institution and the Home (2003), published by Walther König.[45]
  • They Eat Shit (2010 edition), published to accompany the 1993 exhibition at the Walter/McBean Gallery of the Chicago Art Institute.[46]
  • They Eat Shit + Die (2010), published to accompany the 2010 exhibition at 303 Gallery.[47]
  • Sue Williams (2016), published by JRP-Ringier.[48]

References

  1. ^ Kimmelman, Michael. "IN THE STUDIO WITH: SUE WILLIAMS; In a Cheerful Groove, With a Plan and Serendipity". Retrieved July 22, 2018.
  2. ^ Smith, Roberta. "UP AND COMING: Sue Williams; An Angry Young Woman Draws a Bead on Men". Retrieved July 22, 2018.
  3. ^ Smith, Roberta. "UP AND COMING: Sue Williams; An Angry Young Woman Draws a Bead on Men". Retrieved July 22, 2018.
  4. ^ "John Miller on Sue Williams". www.artforum.com. Retrieved July 23, 2018.
  5. ^ Kimmelman, Michael. "IN THE STUDIO WITH: SUE WILLIAMS; In a Cheerful Groove, With a Plan and Serendipity". Retrieved July 23, 2018.
  6. ^ Kimmelman, Michael. "IN THE STUDIO WITH: SUE WILLIAMS; In a Cheerful Groove, With a Plan and Serendipity". Retrieved July 23, 2018.
  7. ^ "RESERVE BACKLASH: SUE WILLIAMS' BLACK COMEDY OF MANNERS". www.artforum.com. Retrieved July 23, 2018.
  8. ^ Smith, Roberta. "UP AND COMING: Sue Williams; An Angry Young Woman Draws a Bead on Men". Retrieved July 23, 2018.
  9. ^ Smith, Roberta. "UP AND COMING: Sue Williams; An Angry Young Woman Draws a Bead on Men". Retrieved July 23, 2018.
  10. ^ "Sue Williams Biography – Sue Williams on artnet". www.artnet.com. Retrieved July 23, 2018.
  11. ^ Kimmelman, Michael. "IN THE STUDIO WITH: SUE WILLIAMS; In a Cheerful Groove, With a Plan and Serendipity". Retrieved July 23, 2018.
  12. ^ "The Sum of Its Parts: An Interview with Sue Williams - Art in America". Art in America. Retrieved July 23, 2018.
  13. ^ Smith, Roberta. "AT THE WHITNEY, A BIENNIAL WITH A SOCIAL CONSCIENCE". Retrieved July 23, 2018.
  14. ^ "Sue Williams at Palm Beach ICA - Announcements - e-flux". www.e-flux.com. Retrieved July 23, 2018.
  15. ^ "Politics Dominates Whitney Biennial". March 26, 1993 – via Christian Science Monitor.
  16. ^ "A Quirky Whitney Biennial". The New York Times. March 24, 1995.
  17. ^ "artnet.com Magazine News – THE 1997 WHITNEY BIENNIAL". www.artnet.com.
  18. ^ "Sue Williams | Artists | 303 Gallery". www.303gallery.com. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
  19. ^ "Sue Williams " secession". www.secession.at.
  20. ^ "MoMA PS1: Exhibitions: Defamation of Character". momaps1.org. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
  21. ^ "Comic Abstraction: Image-Breaking, Image-Making | MoMA". www.moma.org. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
  22. ^ "Programme du Palais de Tokyo, The Third Mind / carte blanche à Ugo Rondinone". archives.palaisdetokyo.com. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
  23. ^ "Project for the New American Century | David Zwirner". David Zwirner. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
  24. ^ "Sue Williams | Artists | 303 Gallery". www.303gallery.com. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
  25. ^ "Vancouver Art Gallery". www.vanartgallery.bc.ca. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
  26. ^ "Figuring Color: Kathy Butterly, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Roy McMakin, Sue Williams | icaboston.org". www.icaboston.org. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
  27. ^ "Comic Future «  Ballroom Marfa". www.ballroommarfa.org. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
  28. ^ "Take It or Leave It: Institution, Image, Ideology | Take It or Leave It digital archive | Hammer Museum". Hammer Museum. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
  29. ^ "America Is Hard to See | Whitney Museum of American Art". whitney.org. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
  30. ^ "Museum Brandhorst | München: Exhibitions". www.museum-brandhorst.de. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
  31. ^ "MoMA PS1: Exhibitions: Greater New York". momaps1.org. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
  32. ^ "Villa Merkel: 2015". www.villa-merkel.de (in German). Retrieved July 22, 2018.
  33. ^ "Don't Look Back: The 1990s at MOCA". The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
  34. ^ "MAMCO / Zeitgeist". archives.mamco.ch. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
  35. ^ "Search Result Details - Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden | Smithsonian". Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden | Smithsonian. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
  36. ^ "Sue Williams". The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
  37. ^ "Sue Williams | Artists | 303 Gallery". www.303gallery.com. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
  38. ^ "Sue Williams | MoMA". www.moma.org. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
  39. ^ "Sue Williams | Artists | 303 Gallery". www.303gallery.com. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
  40. ^ "Sue Williams | Artists | 303 Gallery". www.303gallery.com. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
  41. ^ "Blue and Gold in Short Skirt". Retrieved July 22, 2018. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
  42. ^ "Whitney Museum of American Art: Sue Williams". collection.whitney.org. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
  43. ^ "Sue Williams - PUBLICATIONS - 303 Gallery". www.303gallery.com. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
  44. ^ "Sue Williams - PUBLICATIONS - 303 Gallery". www.303gallery.com. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
  45. ^ "Sue Williams - PUBLICATIONS - 303 Gallery". www.303gallery.com. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
  46. ^ "Sue Williams - PUBLICATIONS - 303 Gallery". www.303gallery.com. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
  47. ^ "Sue Williams - PUBLICATIONS - 303 Gallery". www.303gallery.com. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
  48. ^ "Sue Williams - PUBLICATIONS - 303 Gallery". www.303gallery.com. Retrieved July 22, 2018.
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