Susan Williams (artist)
Susan Williams was an American artist.[1] In 1938[2] she was born Susan Lewis in Chicago, Illinois. She married architect Frank Williams in the 1960s and had her son David in 1969. She was a fraternal twin (Sandy, her sister was an animal rights activist). Williams got her MFA at New York University, where she initially studied painting, but then moved into three dimensional work. Her time was divided between San Miguel Allende in Mexico where she maintained a home and studio and Craryville, in upstate New York. In 2015, she died of cancer at home in Craryville with her son at her side; her husband, son, and three grandchildren (Anabelle, Dakota, Juliette) survived her.
Susan Williams | |
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Born | Susan Lewis 1938 Chicago |
Died | 2015 (aged 76–77) |
Nationality | American |
Williams was an AIR Gallery pioneer and co-founding member.[3] She formed the gallery in 1972 with friend Barbara Zucker in order to increase the promotion of work by female artists.[4][5] In addition to her sculptures, Williams worked in plexiglas creating furniture and producing standing lamps, tables and chairs that were sold and exhibited. The sculptures she showed early on at AIR were influenced by the furniture and were large, tall transparent plastic containers filled with newsprint. In 1963, Williams and Barbara Zucker met on Monhegan Island. During the 1960s, they shared an artist's studio on lower Broadway, Chinatown and Little Italy. For a brief period they worked to create sculptures and paintings that were mirrors of each other but all these works were destroyed. After leaving the AIR Gallery, Williams also designed silver jewelry for several years. Her late work is composed of graphic, black and white manipulated photographic images.
Her image is included in the iconic 1972 poster Some Living American Women Artists by Mary Beth Edelson.[6]
References
- "SUSAN WILLIAMS's Obituary on New York Times". New York Times.
- "Susan Williams". A.I.R. Retrieved 22 January 2022.
- Love, Barbara J., ed. (September 22, 2006). Feminists Who Changed America, 1963–1975. University of Illinois Press. p. 189. ISBN 9780252031892. Retrieved February 15, 2019 – via Internet Archive.
- "What is AIR Gallery".
- Irish, Anni (7 January 2016). "Catching Up with A.I.R. Gallery: An Advocate for Women Artists for Over 40 Years | ArtSlant". ArtSlant. Retrieved 2018-03-07.
- "Some Living American Women Artists/Last Supper". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved 21 January 2022.