Franklin Williams: It’s about Love
David Winton Bell Gallery (The Bell) at Brown University, Providence, RI • bell.brown.edu • Through December 8, 2024
Franklin Williams is the quintessential contrarian artist. He has maintained a meditative studio practice for sixty years, while living a committed family and teaching life, largely eschewing external pressure from institutional and market trends. The resulting unique work draws on the folk and craft traditions that he learned in his close Utah family.
Cutting Apron Strings, which speaks to the imminent demise of his mother, has intricate stitchery on pieced-together fabric. The stitchery is open, curved, patterned and lyrical–silver on a geometric ground of red, blue, purple, and black. The diamond shape has the lower half folded open as if the life within is still present.
In Pink Tea, a tribute to his family, created in acrylic and twine, the sexualized central image is the generative rising force that bears heart-shaped offshoots. Williams was an undiagnosed dyslexic in his youth, and also challenged by undiagnosed color vision deficiency. He recalls studying geometric patterns under a quilting frame as a young child. Family encouragement of his artistic efforts laid the base for his future development.
The love and support of his wife, Carol, to whom he has been married sixty years, is the inspiration for much of his work. Twins (71 x120 x 3 inches), which features two mirror images of a dancing figure, is executed in acrylic on canvas. The shared joy of the feminine figures is palpable, and the brushwork of dots and dashes brings to mind the stitchery that is so prevalent in many of his pieces.
Secret Sweet Slovakia, one of the most recent pieces, picks up techniques that are present in earlier works from the sixties. Crochet thread, feathers, acrylic, vinyl, and paper are a few staples of Williams’ intuitive process. Often his handprints and fingerprints appear in the works, both as a patterning device and as a literal representation of his hands at work. It’s about Love is an apt title for this singular exhibition, which clearly shares with us Williams’ central tenet: “To this day I’ve been a dreamer and I believe in magic.” This writer encourages you to experience this unique visual gift.
— B. Amore