Brian Williams

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Brian Williams - born 1950

For Brian Williams the love of art and nature is inseparable. The experience of nature and its understanding in creative works are cornerstones of the philosophy of Williams and other liked minded Americans living in Japan. This means not only to document the beauty of nature in photo realistic oil paintings, watercolors and prints, but also to actively protect and conserve nature. And this precisely describes the achievements of Brian Williams.

Roots in the Andes

Brian Williams was born in 1950 in Lima, Peru. The son of missionaries, he grew up bilingual - English and Spanish - in the Peruvian Alps. Since early childhood, he was acquainted with the beauty and wealth of nature and its richness. But he also learned to love its ruggedness. He learned here at the same time, to see needs as gains and to keep material pursuits away from his dreams. This philosophy has had a lasting influence on his life.

When Williams was 12 years old, he moved with his family to the northern coast of Chile into a house a few meters from the beach. With this move, he became fascinated with discovering new lands and cultures and he developed a taste for travel. In 1966 Williams moved to California to finish high school and for college. Notions at the height of hippie movement agreed with his views and even supported his desire to become an artist.

The Search for Art

Firstly he checked out the art scene in New York, which, however, disappointed him. In an interview characterized western art as having fizzled out, according to his opinion. The only acceptable values were novelty and a certain conceptual joke, he said. And so two months after finishing college, he left everything behind and drove to the Southwest in a RMV to lead the alternative life of an artist. And soon thereafter, he decided to follow his girlfriend to Japan.

A New Beginning in Japan

With supposedly a mere $300 in his pocket, he bought a one way ticket to Japan, where he first got by, by teaching English. He learned the Japanese language, culture and art. In a sense, he became Japanese. His integration was made complete at the very latest in 1975 when he married the Japanese Hidemi. According to some reports, while he attended the Kyoto Institute of Technology he developed several connections by working as a technical translator of English and Spanish.

Artistic Breakthrough

Williams decided along ago to pursue a career as an artist. He devoted himself to the study of the traditional Japanese techniques, as well as that of the newer western printing techniques like lithography or etching. He also painted in oil and watercolor. His name recognition grew after some small exhibitions of his work. In 1978 after a large solo exhibition, however, Williams became the most important American artist in Japan.

Many exhibitions have since brought Williams considerable fame not only in Japan but also in the world. This did not however dissuade the artist from his philosophy of life. He leads a modest existence with his family in an old, restored traditional farmer's house. He is valued as an artist and admired as a human being. He constantly appears on Japanese television not only as an expert on art but also as an advocate for the environment and nature.

Motifs and Thoughts

The love of Nature - of the untouched like of the inhabited - led him to the most awe-inspiring places of the world. In 1993, Williams climbed Mount Kilimanjaro (5895m) with his daughter, crossed the Taklamakan Desert in western China, wandered through Nepal, where he scaled the Island Peak (6189m) and visited the Everst Base Camp (5400m). Williams naturally always traveled with his artistic tools, with which he not only completed pictures but also produced sketches and other materials for works to be completed later in the studio. Although he loves most to work in the presence of nature, the elaborate printing techniques necessitate the technical transformation in a studio.

Oil paints and watercolors originate in nature, despite being at such impossible sites and the atmospheric conditions. The nature conservationist and admirer is completely in his element here. It does not elude him in any way, to misuse his pictures as tools of his philosophy or political conviction. The recognition of the necessity of the preservation of nature must come from within and from the understanding of the beauty of nature. His pictures are then also pure homage to the beauty and perfection of creation.

His motifs are however not only landscapes and sunsets. The romatic farmer's life with simple conditions as well as union with the cycles of the year are among his most common motifs. These often poor farms are on the one hand expression of the philosophy of Brian Williams and on the other hand also contrasting figures for the staging of nature.

Style and Technique

Brian Williams is a perfectionist of every applied technique. His pictures are embellished to the smallest detail. In them is light a fundamental element, that on the one hand brings clarity to the picture, on the other hand for the singular, not unusually dramatic atmosphere responsible is.

Although Brian Williams is a self-taught artist, he commands every one of his applied techniques with the highest precision. He carries out his watercolors, oil paintings and his prints - etchings, lithographs and monotypes - with near photo-realistic precision.

Exhibitions

Brian Williams' participation in exhibitions is not documented in detail. One of his most important exhibitions includes the 1983 CWAJ-Exhibition of Prints in Tokyo. Other important exhibitions took place in: Kyoto, Yokohama, Kokura, Kanagawa, Osaka, Bodega Bay and San Francisco.

Collections

Works from Brian Williams are found in colletions all over the world. Some of the more notable collections can be found at:

Bibliography

Franco, Betsy and Michael Verne. Quiet Elegance - Japan through the Eyes of Nine American Artists. Boston: Charles E.Tuttle Company, Inc., 1997.

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