Christopher Williams (artist)
Christopher Williams (born 1956, Los Angeles) is an American conceptual artist and fine art photographer.[1] He lives in Cologne and works in Düsseldorf.[2]
Contents
Early life and education
In the 1970s and early 1980s, he studied at the California Institute of the Arts where he received his B.F.A. and M.F.A. under the first generation of West Coast conceptual artists including John Baldessari,[3] Douglas Huebler, and Michael Asher.[4] Since October 2008 he has been a professor in photography at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. His wife is curator and former Stedelijk Museum director Ann Goldstein.[5]
Work
Writing in Artforum in 2007, art critic Tim Griffin described Williams's approach as "sociophotographic."[6] It has been said that Williams works within the tradition of institutional critique within what Sven Lütticken describes as an informal group, along with Willem de Rooij, Jeroen de Rijke and Mathias Poledna, that investigates the "parameters of the exhibition space."[7] Chronologically, however, he belongs to the Pictures Generation, whose members include Richard Prince, Cindy Sherman, James Welling and Louise Lawler.[8] In 1982 Williams had his first solo exhibition at Jancar/Kuhlenschmidt Gallery in Los Angeles.
Angola to Vietnam is a photography portfolio of glass flowers.[9][9][10]
In 2000, at an exhibition at David Zwirner Gallery, in New York, Williams showed twenty photographs including a series of pictures of a 1964 Renault automobile on its side. Writing in The New York Times Ken Johnson said, "the Renault was made in a French factory where significant revolutionary activities took place in 1968; hence it is tipped up like a barricade."[3]
Williams' photographs oftentimes show increasingly obsolescent film-based equipment — cameras, lenses and darkroom gear — as beautiful and precise as catalog product shots. The accompanying text adds detail about how the equipment was used.[11] Made by a professional photographer who follows Williams's directions,[2] the conventionally scaled pictures have the glossy lucidity of excellent commercial photographs.[3]
Publications
- Christopher Williams: The production Line of Happiness. ISBN 978-0300203905. Exhibition catalogue.
- London: Whitechapel Gallery, 2014.
- Walther König, 2014.
- Christopher Williams: Printed in Germany. Walther König, 2014. ISBN 978-3863356002. Exhibition catalogue.
Exhibitions
Solo exhibitions
Since joining David Zwirner in 2000, Williams has had five solo exhibitions at the gallery in New York.
- 2005: Secession, Vienna.[citation needed]
- 2005: Kunstverein Braunschweig, Germany.[citation needed]
- 2006: Museu Serralves, Porto, Portugal.[citation needed]
- 2007: Kunsthalle Zürich.[citation needed]
- 2010: Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Germany.[citation needed]
- 2010: Bergen Kunsthall, Norway.[citation needed]
- 2011: Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen, Germany.[citation needed]
- 2011: Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle, Belgium.[citation needed]
- 2013: Christopher Williams: For Example: Dix-Huit Leçons Sur La Société Industrielle (Revision 18), David Zwirner, London.[12]
- 2014 at The Art Institute of Chicago and traveled to The Museum of Modern Art, New York.[13]
Exhibitions with others
- 2013: 55th Venice Biennale, curated by Massimiliano Gioni.[citation needed]
Awards
- 2005: Guggenheim Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.[14]
- 2005–2006: Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award.[15]
- 2014: Photography Catalogue of the Year, Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards for Christopher Williams: The Production Line of Happiness and Christopher Williams: Printed in Germany.[16][17][18]
Collections
Williams' work is held in the following museum collections:
- Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh.[citation needed]
- Hammer Museum, Los Angeles.[citation needed]
- Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.[citation needed]
- Museum Ludwig, Cologne.[citation needed]
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.[citation needed]
- Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.[citation needed]
- Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.[citation needed]
- Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.[citation needed]
References
- ↑ Getty Research, Union List of Artist Names Online
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Mary M. Lane (May 18, 2013), The Photo Perfectionist With a Yen to Provoke Wall Street Journal.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Ken Johnson (art critic) (April 7, 2000),Art in Review; Christopher Williams New York Times.
- ↑ Christopher Williams: The Production Line of Happiness, August 2 – November 2, 2014
- ↑ Suzanne Muchnic (June 30, 2009), MOCA curator Ann Goldstein to lead Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum Los Angeles Times.
- ↑ Tim Griffin "Christopher Williams: Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Bologna, Bologna," Artforum, January 2007.
- ↑ Lütticken, 122
- ↑ Roberta Smith (July 31, 2014), Kodak Moments, Deconstructed New York Times.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 This Will Have Been: Art, Love & Politics in the 1980s, February 11 – June 3, 2012 Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.
- ↑ Christopher Williams, Angola to Vietnam (1989) Christie's Contemporary Art (Evening Sale), 16 May 2000, New York.
- ↑ Philip Gefter (January 23, 2014), The Next Big Picture - With Cameras Optional, New Directions in Photography New York Times.
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- ↑ http://www.foundationforcontemporaryarts.org/grant_recipients/christopherwilliams.html
- ↑ "Announcing the Winners of The Paris Photo—Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards 2014", Aperture Foundation. Accessed 30 October 2015.
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Literature
- Burton, Johanna. “Christopher Williams at David Zwirner.” Artforum (May 2008): 376-377.
- Ekeberg, Jonas. “Fotografiets Utvidete Felft Photography’s Expanded Field.” OM FOTOGRAFI (2005): 3-11.
- Godfrey, Mark. “Christopher Williams.” Artforum (May 2007): 366.
- Lütticken, Sven. “Gegen die Wand.” Texte Zur Kunst (June 2009): 121-123.
- Rattemeyer, Christian. “Christopher Williams.” Parkett No. 77 (2006):155.
External links
- Christopher Williams at David Zwirner
- Gisela Capitain Gallery
- Wako Works of Art
- Christopher Williams at Artnet
- Christopher Williams in Dům umění České Budějovice, Budweis, Czech Republic
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