Obituary: Aubrey Williams Guyana dreaming in paint UBREY Williams, the late 1966, of the Caribbean Art­ hibitions in London over the of feeling for the past and Guyanese painter, ists Movement (CAM), of which past decade: The Symphonies present seen as one totality. died in London on Fri­ he was a founder member, and Quartets of Dimitri Shosta­ The visual elements and day after a long fight broke through his growing feel­ kovich — paintings (Common­ symbols are never static: Aagainst cancer. His energying and of isolation as a Caribbean wealth Institute, 1981; Royal always in movement, from, seriousness of purpose, his gen­ artist working in Europe. This Festival Hall, 1984); The Almec- colour to colour and dark to erosity and infectious enthusi­ group of Caribbean writers, art­ Maya and Now (Common­ light, they coagulate and: asm for life, won him devoted ists and intellectuals, mostly in wealth Institute, 1985). disperse in fields of energy. friends on both sides of the At­ their late thirties or early for­ No postcards or posters of Likewise, his investigating lantic. His marvellous paint­ ties — C. L. R. James and Ron­ Aubrey Williams’s work are for and enquiring mind is ings, worked over almost four ald Moody, then in their late sale. But reproductions of his continually focused on the decades, have awed and de­ sixties, were revered "elders” paintings are increasingly used, relationship between man and lighted those who have seen — worked at two levels. CAM to excellent effect, on the covers nature, and the mythological them, and continue to enrich provided a public platform, of books by Caribbean writers, mysteries echoed in the the lives of those fortunate or through open meetings and particularly those published by artefacts of past civilisations. wise enough to own one. conferences, where West Indi­ the Dangaroo Press of Aarhus, Work in his native Guyana, Bom in Georgetown in the ans could become acquainted Denmark. This led its director, with the Warrau tribes, led to then colony of British Guiana, with and respond to contempo­ Anna Rutherford, recently to an intense interest in their Williams worked first as an rary Caribbean literature and initiate a short book about Au­ ancient pre-Columbian agricultural officer, and it was art. It also enabled the writers brey Williams, which I was civilisation. The Sun Disc and ostensibly to study apiculture and artists themselves to share asked to compile. It contains other symbols and hieroglyphs that he came to Britain in 1952. their problems and concerns in statements and notes by Au­ of this lost cosmology became But he had already shown a charting an indigenous Carib­ brey Williams; an extract from alive as poignant elements in a ! remarkable gift for drawing bean aesthetic after genera­ his long “Conversation” with most powerfully expressed and painting, and had taken ad­ tions of European cultural dom­ Rasheed Araeen — editor of phase of work, which vantage as a young man of the ination. These small group Third Text and responsible for culminated in the Olmec-Maya Working People’s Art Group CAM meetings took their Am­ the recent exhibition. The Other show at the Commonwealth under E. R. Burrowes, the vet­ erindian name from Aubrey Story: Afro-Asian Artists in Institute (1985). This was a eran Guyanese artist and art Williams: “warishis," opportu­ Post-War Britain at the Hay­ major exhibition, with a educator. nities for unburdening to one ward Gallery; selected critical significant body of work of the A two year posting to a another. comment on his work from highest calibre, and was to remote part of the North West CAM’s development in Lon­ 1960-1989, and 16 colour repro­ assure his place in the British interior among the Warrau — don coincided with the flourish­ ductions of his paintings. Brief art scene. one of the three principal Am­ ing of new art forms and lan­ extracts from two contributions Aubrey Williams joins the erindian peoples of Guyana — guage in the Caribbean itself, to it appear below. poets and writers from his l had deeply impressed him and culminating in Carifesta, the We had all hoped that this country whose work has I thereafter had a continuing in­ first Caribbean regional festival book, to which Aubrey Wil­ enriched the British cultural fluence on his thought and of the arts in Guyana, in 1972, liams himself gave the title, heritage. He is an artist who 1 work. After a couple of years of in all of which Aubrey Williams Guyana Dreaming, would be bridged race, cultures and 1 working and travelling on the took a leading part Increas­ published as a tribute on his religions. continent and in Britain, Wil­ ingly, throughout the 1970s and 64th birthday on May 8. Instead liams made his home in Lon­ the 1980s, he worked and exhib­ it will act as a small memorial Wilson Harris adds; Aubrey don. ited as much in the Caribbean to a great man. Williams is a painter I have He enrolled at the St Mar­ as in London, particularly in admired for many years. Some tin’s School of Art in London, Jamaica.There, and in nearby Ann Walmsley of his most memorable and held his first one-man show Florida, he was able to work in canvases create a bridge from at the Archer Gallery, in 1955. the light and climate in which Aubrey Williams was one of the the world of light into a web of Thereafter the large amount of he felt most at home; he was most outstanding and sensation akin to music. This high quality work he produced also close to the two peoples of individual of the artists who capacity to transmute paint was exhibited frequently and Mexico with whose pre-Colum­ exhibited at the New Vision into feelings that relate to other widely. In 1965 he won the Com­ bian culture he claimed a Centre Gallery in London areas of sensibility — whether monwealth Prize for painting; special kinship — the Olmec which I directed from 1956 to sculpture or music — is to me increasingly he became catego­ and the Maya — and whose 1966 (writes Denis Bowen). the ground of marvel and a rised, and to some extent mar­ imagery he was to use increas­ His work has its own signal of remarkable talent ginalised, as a Commonwealth ingly in his paintings. Here he mysterious atmosphere, painter. • produced the huge, brilliant possessed by surging forms Aubrey Williams, bom May 8, The formation in London, in canvases for his two major ex­ imbued with a hypnotic depth 1926; died April 27. 1990. OBSERVER SUNDAY 19 AUGUST 1990 WORLE Dispossessed of the black townships reach for machetes, spec South A frica ’s week of the long knives Johannesburg Johannesburg, and on 11 leaving their families behind. prisals. Inkatha spokesmen August in the eastern Transvaal Tensions within the single-sex deny this. They claim that the Allister Sparks town o f Ermelo. hostels, which are often com­ ANC initiated the violence Two days later last week’s partmentalised on tribal lines, against their supporters because THE BLOODY carnage raging eruption began in Thokoza and between hostel-dwellers it is unwilling to tolerate politi­ through Johannesburg’s black township, 15 miles south-east of and the squatters often run cal competition. townships has leapt like a bush Johannesburg. It spread to high. Independent verification i: fire from battle-torn Natal, and neighbouring Kathlehong and The squatters, many of impossible in the present cli­ is a new threat to President Vosloorus before leapfrogging whom are unemployed, regard mate of fear. W hat is clear is F. W. de Klerk’s delicately bal­ back to Soweto and ending the the temporary migrants as that the hostels became the cen anced negotiations. week with more than 200 peo­ usurpers o f jobs. Into this social tral points in the battles, with As the worsening violence ple dead and about 1,500 tinder, sparks from Natal were Zulu supporters of Inkatha spreads through the packed injured. blown when Inkatha began its holding councils of war in them, migrant-worker hostels and The violence has centred on recruitment drive three weeks then marching out to attack teeming squatter camps, where large migrant workers’ hostels ago. wearing red head bands to iden­ newcomers to the city live in and sprawling squatter settle­ Lloyd Vogelman, director of tify themselves and carrying swelling numbers and deepen­ ments. the Project for the Study o f Vio­ crude weapons, from butcher’s ing poverty, voices are being The more established sectors lence at Johannesburg’s Witwa- knives, axes and sharpened iron raised in the security establish­ of the black townships are tersrand University, notes that a bars to home-made shotguns ment for a return of the state of almost untouched. This indi­ high proportion of migrant with barrels cut from iron pip-i emergency, lifted last m onth. cates that it is primarily a war workers are Zulus from Natal, ing. If that happens, the African among the newcomers, ill-edu­ who bring the fears and hatreds The worst of these attacks, National Congress could rescind cated rural people still close to of that province’s three-year last Wednesday and Thursday, the suspension of its armed their tribal roots. civil war into the Transvaal. were directed at two squatter struggle and the negotiating South Africa is experiencing These feelings become hard­ settlements called Phola Park process could begin to unravel. one of the w orld’s fastest urban­ ened in the hostels, Vogelman and Crossroads. Amid the charges and count- isation rates, as the combination says, because of the shared Refugees from these settle­ er-charges about wht> is to of a black population explosion experience and strong confor­ ments say this was because dis-, blam e, one thing stands out.