Hiram Williams - Art/Life Journals Content Summaries for Selected Journals Volume 1 This volume begins in Oct. 1968; the Williamses are in Gainesville, and the weather is cold. H.W. refers to: Mauricio Lasansky's "Nazi Drawings;" his own evolution of imagery to use one or two features of a personality; the breast as a gland; landscape imagery and painting for money; his idea for a series of skins and a double image; homecoming at U.F.; election day; the New York art scene; success; money and intelligence; Picasso; form and formlessness; the faculty art exhibition; changes in Nordness Gallery; his family tree; and "quality." H.W. reads: Our Crowd, Making It, Miro, William Blake and Paul Klee. H.W. works on: illustrations for a friend's poems; drawings and paintings of punch bowls, coffee cups, roads, still lives, chorus lines, heads. H.W. travels: with the children, who are home for the holidays, and his wife to the beaches at St. Augustine, Fla., where he observes nature; he also flies to give a talk at Palm Beach Jr. College. H.W. contracts the flu and chest pains. Volume 2 This volume begins in Jan. 1969. The Williamses are in Gainesville. H.W. refers to: critics and irony; humanism in art; and idea for a novel; Andrew Wyeth and his contribution to figuration compared to H.W.'s contribution; Norman Geske; Walt Disney. H.W. reads: Nicholas and Alexander, The Bedbug and Selected Poetry; he sees the play The Subject was Roses. H.W. works on: a Watteau paper with daughter, Kim; a talk about the painter's struggle. Volume 3 This volume begins Jan. 28, 1969. H.W. refers to: New Yorkers, the New York Art Scene; N.Y. gallery conflicts with the student show; anonymity and approval; artist's intelligence; waning prestige; critics; originality; misunderstanding; Oldenburg; Theibaud; John Graham; De Kooning; William Blake; Magritte; Thoreau; Emerson; Hawthorne; Alcott; national and regional recognition; Yasuo Kuniyoshi (who had a show at University Gallery at the time); Benton; Curry; Wood, and other artists of the thirties; history of the UF Faculty Seminar on American Civilization; personal history from childhood; appearance of students; Balthus; and he includes an excerpt from Poon's Smith. H.W. reads: Man in the Glass Octopus; Assemblage, Environments, and Happenings; A Voyage to Lilliput. H.W. works on a lithograph and several sketches. Volume 4 This volume begins on Feb. 14, 1969. H.W. refers to: rain on the roof; Gazing Man in the Whitney; sidewalk art shows; owning land; Negro church services and black/white relations; Nordness, N.Y. Gallery; writer, Jean Stafford; Mary Nye, first Texas gallery dealer; mechanical ability; Nativisim; Dutchmen; Chagall; Warhol; Duchamp; Miro; Malcom Morley; Dorothy Miller; Anthony Bower. H.W. reads: To Be a Pilgrim; Herself Surprised; The Horse’s Mouth. H.W. works on paintings of heads and many sketches. H.W. travels to Charleston. Volume 5 This volume begins Feb. 27, 1969. H.W. refers to: Jose Luis Cuevas, Mexican draftsman; Larry Rivers; Robert Frost; pushing work in New York; personal history; attitude of students "today"; Milton Avery; Poon's Smith; Hemingway; Norman Mailer; luck; political animals in N.Y.; De Chirico; Tanguey; Dali; MoMA; Dorothy Miller; Morandi; Burchfield; crows; an encounter with a trapped colt; mouth images; Van Deren Coke; George Eddinger, WPA art instructor; Harrison Covington; Jack Flam; Cezanne; Jerry Uelsmann; Peter Bunnell; snakes; painters he has met or known; "purple-patch"; Ben Shahn; Lindner; DeKooning; Oldenburg; Balthus; trouble with Nordness. H.W. works on: five "Heads". H.W. experiences chest pains. Volume 6 This volume begins in March, 1969. H.W. refers to: race relations; Van Gogh; Running Man image being lifted from him; William Blake; Samuel Palmer; Jim Dine; Alfred Leslie; Picasso; Baskin; family history; Charles Hovington Bull; political survival in art. H.W. reads: The Couples, Samuel Palmer Sketchbook. H.W. works on: head and torso; Irradiated Man. H.W. travels to Winston-Salem, and Pennsylvania. Volume 7 This volume begins in May, 1969. H.W. refers to: minimal art; his skins series; hippies and "the establishment", Willem de Kooning; Milton Avery; Joseph Cornell; career, energy and the expense of artist's materials; Jerry Lewis; Billy Graham. H.W. does a TV program with Roy Craven, Director of University Gallery. H.W. reads: Disobedience and Democracy; Concerning Dissent and Civil Disobedience; Soul on Ice. H.W. works on: two skins of tables; head; skin of a crowd; skinned saw; punch bowl with collaged eyes and mouth. H.W. travels to: Crescent Beach, Palm Beach, and Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. Volume 8 This volume begins in August, 1969. H.W. refers to: gossips; Robert Motherwell; Thomas Hart Benton; the passion of gospel singing; New York; an episode in Germany with General George Patton; old age; contour; William Blake; Jane Daugherty; Wesselman; Newman; Kline; the 'black hole' as "us", we are the 'audience' in the universe (this becomes an idea for a series); Williams Weege; Robert Beckhurt; Truman Capote; projects for 1970; accomplishment; recollection of Pearl Harbor bombing. H.W. reads: Samuel Palmer, Shoreham and After; A Man of the People; Vanguard Artist; An American in Art; Pump House Gang. H.W. works on: punch bowls, collages. H.W. sees: Lion in Winter; Easy Rider. H.W. travels to: Pennsylvania; Roanoke, Va., Crescent Beach, Fla. Volume 9 This volume begins in Dec. 1969. H. W. refers to: Ernest Hemingway; philosophy of education; Andrew Wyeth. H.W. reads: The Myth of the Negro Past; Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. H.W. works on: collages, heads, roads, punch bowls. H.W. sees: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. H.W. travels to: the Florida Keys at Christmas time; New York. Volume 10 This volume begins in March 1970. H.W. refers to: Challenging Man; Poon's Smith; Kent State shooting; Nixon; Charles Burchfield; Francis Bacon; LeBrun. H.W. reads: The Arms of Krupp; Contemporary British Painting; Matisse. H.W. works on: Collages, heads, landscapes, Chorus lines, punch bowls, roads, stroboscopic figures; running man. H.W. sees: Tell Them Willie Boy is Here. H.W. travels to: Crescent Beach, Fla.; Bowling Green University, Columbia, Ohio. Volume 11 This volume begins in July, 1970. Hiram Williams refers to: truth; encaustic; Sidney Noland; Lucien Freud; Graham Sutherland; Charles Burchfield; De Kooning; Dubuffet; Nordness; Francis Bacon; range and vision; Hockney; Dufy; Edwin Dickinson; Kitaj; Leon Golub; psychology through imagery; New York; maple trees; nature; Hobson Pittman; family history. H.W. reads: Moment in the Sun; The Seventh American Review; Little Big Man. H.W. works on: skinned trousers; chorus lines; injured landscape; punch bowls; skins; man in a bowler hat; crowd on a beach inviting flagellation. H.W. travels to: Crescent Beach, Fla.; Pennsylvania. Volume 12 This volume begins in Sept. 1970. Hiram Williams refers to: rat race; success; churches; Hemingway; Mailer; Thomas Wolfe; Harry Crews; history of Art Department--growth and curriculum; his 5th one- man show in N.Y.; recommendations for changes in public school art department; Charles Burchfield. H.W. reads: Patton; Wretched of the Earth. H.W. works on: Macadam landscapes; heads. H.W. sees: Patton; The Russians are Coming. H.W. travels to: Crescent Beach, Fla.; Richmond, Va. Volume 13 This volume begins in Oct. 1970. Hiram Williams refers to: his fifth one-man show at Nordness, (a press release describing the "Skins" and "Punchbowls" is included); the trip to New York; MoMA; Dorothy Miller; Alfred Barr; Eakins; O'Keefe; John Canaday; his own personality; Hobson Pittman; Williams Merritt Chase; "queering" the composition of a picture; "junction" in composition; lack of critical attention to N.Y. show; his mother's failing health; Francis Bacon; ideas for new landscapes; Claude Ponsot; men and power. H.W. reads: Happy Days; Ernest Hemingway; The Making of a Counter Culture. H.W. works on: reworks Professors (Intellectuals) at an Impasse; Man in a Bowler Hat; landscapes; crowd. H.W. travels to: New York; Pennsylvania; Flagler Beach, Fla.; St. Pete, Fla. Volume 14 This volume begins in Dec. 1970. Hiram Williams refers to: Japanese novelist Yukio Mishima; Albert Camus; Ernest Hemingway; John Kennedy; Ken Kesey; Pierre Trudeau--all men larger than life; the December issue of Art News and a review of his show. H.W. works on: Chorus line; there are over 80 sketches in the volume. H.W. travels to: Tallahassee, Fla. Volume 15 This volume begins in Jan. 1971. Hiram Williams refers to: hauling art to gallery; Eakins; Sheeler; Mishima; Karl Hess; Chorus Lines; Stanley Spencer; Hobson Pittman; Louise Nevelson; Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.; Andy Warhol; plagiarism of his own work with photographs as evidence. H.W. reads: The New Painting, Udo Kultermann, Praeger Press, which includes reference to H.W.; Down All the Days; The Kingdom and the Power. H.W. sees: Five Easy Pieces. H.W. works on: Earth Mother; heads; crowd; seated figures; a lithographic portrait; sketch series showing ideas prior to beginning of diaries, from the early sixties, such as Heads; also, Seated Figures, current work, are sketched, along with several pages of cartoons and a series of photographs of Williams demonstrating the creation of a large painting to a class. Volume 16 This volume begins in Feb. 1971. Hiram Williams refers to: Jasper Johns; Eric Segal (Love Story), Mohammed Ali and Frazier fight; Henry Kissinger; Kurt Schwitters; genius; middle age; his mother's failing health; Dubuffet; Duchamp; Robert Morris; family history; artist/critic/dealer relationships; humanists; universities and museums where his work is placed. H.W. reads: Up the Organization; The Duality of Vision; Albert Camus' Notebooks; Clotel; The Gang that Couldn't Shoot Straight.