Aubrey Williams,  Savannah Sun, 1959

Lot description

Aubrey Williams, Guyanese/British 1926-1990 - Savannah Sun, 1959; oil on canvas, signed, dated and titled on the reverse 'Aubrey Williams 59 ', 62 x 76.5 cm (unframed) (ARR) Provenance: with Commonwealth institute Art Gallery, London; private collection, purchased from the above and thence by descent; Roseberys, London, Impressionist, Modern, Post War & Contemporary, Wednesday 4th December 2019, lot 95; private collection, purchased from the above Exhibited: Commonwealth Institute Art Gallery, London, 'Aubrey Williams', 3rd-27th June 1965 (according to the previous cataloguing of the work) Note: this work is similar to 'Death and the Conquistador', also made in 1959, which can be found in the Tate collection (reference no.T13341). Both works are typical of Williams's style of the 1950s, combining abstract impressionist tendencies with the forms and symbols of the pre-Colombian art of the indigenous inhabitants of the Americas. Williams was strongly influenced by American artists associated with Abstract Expressionist such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning, having seen major exhibitions of their works at the Tate Gallery in London in 1956 and 1959. After moving to the city in the 1950s, Williams became a major figure in the London art world, especially through his connection with the South African artist Denis Bowen, who founded the New Visions Gallery in London. Williams co-founded the Caribbean Artists Movement with other London-based Caribbean artists and intellectuals, such as Ronald Moody, Stuart Hall and Orlando Patterson. His artwork is currently in the collection of the Tate in London, the Arts Council, the Royal Albert Memorial Museum and the Bristol Museum and Gallery, among others. His work was central to the 2022 exhibition, 'Post-war Modern: New Art in Britain 1945-1965' at the Barbican Centre, London and other recent internationally acclaimed shows including 'Life Between Islands: Caribbean-British Art 50s – Now', 2021 at Tate Britain and 'The Gift of Art', 2018 at the Perez Art Museum, Miami.