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Crying Child, 1965, by Matthew Williams. Oil on canvas. Private collection.
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The Duke, 1982, by Matthew Williams. Pastel. Private collection.
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African Wedding, 1967, by Matthew Williams. Acrylic. Collection of the artist.
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Medium/Discipline: Mixed Media, Painting, Works on Paper
Birthplace: Raleigh, North Carolina
Maryland Affiliation: Depicts Maryland subjects, Active while in residence
Prominent Theme: Portraits; Jazz Artists; Africa; Actors; Musicians; Politicians; Multicultural Themes
Active Dates and Place: Baltimore, Maryland, 1964-1975, 1979-present; Atlantic City, Summer 1966; Washington, DC, 1975-79
Places of Residence: North Carolina; New York City 1950s; Baltimore, Maryland 1964-1975, 1979-present; Washington, DC, 1975-1979
Gender: Male
Race/Ethnicity: Black/African-American
Biography: Born in North Carolina and eventually settling in Baltimore, Maryland in the 1960s, artist Matthew "Bay Bay" Williams is perhaps best known for his 1965 oil painting, Crying Child. The image of this work has been distributed worldwide. Self-taught in the styles of Old Master painters based on research at museums and libraries, Williams says Crying Child hearkens to a convention of Dutch Master, Rembrandt van Rijn, of a figure emerging from a black background. Bay Bay Williams' grandfather predicted that he would be an artist since he showed an aptitude for artistry at an early age.
Williams began working as an artist in Baltimore in 1964, doing hand-drawn portraits in color or black and white at various jazz clubs and businesses throughout the city, including the North End Lounge. During this time, he was mentored by Harry Bowser, a commercial illustrator and fine artist who was trained at the Maryland Institute College of Art and worked in a realist style during a time when Abstract Expressionism was a prevalent American art trend. Williams spent the summer of 1966 in Atlantic City working with illustrators, most of whom were white, along the boardwalk; he worked among artists trained at the New York Student Arts League.
Bay Bay Williams studied the work of the "Ashcan School," or Robert Henri's circle of artists active 1908-1912 in New York City; this group, also called "The Eight," broke from tradition by focusing on everyday subjects such as street life and the impoverished in the city. Specific artists that Williams cites as influences include: African-American portrait painter Joshua Johnson (active 1789-1832); American realist Thomas Eakins (1844-1916); a member of "The Eight," George Luks (1866-1933); American Social Realist Painter, Reginald Marsh (1898-1954); and African-American genre painter Henry O. Tanner (1859-1937). Williams' interest in realism is expressed in his own words: "A face that has lines, that expresses some outstanding quality or wisdom - that is for me an interesting face. A face of an aged person or one weathered by years of hard labor, perhaps not beautiful, is usually more appealing than the face of a person who has not really been challenged by life." He also admired the work of Haitian masters active in the 1940s, including Préfète Duffaut, Andre Pierre, Hector Hippolyte and Antoine Obin, whose work he became familiar with during his gallery tenure.
Bay Bay Williams painted an image of Jocko Graves, a twelve-year-old African-American who froze to death while holding George Washington's horses during the Revolutionary War. Williams pictorially revised the "Lawn Jockey" image that had evolved over the 19th- and 20th-Century to resolve the anatomical stereotypes that the Jocko figures possessed in order to appropriately situate Jocko in the nation's memory as the "first child hero in America."
Bay Bay Williams' knowledge of noted artists throughout history was also augmented by his travel throughout Europe in 1969 and his involvement in the administration of two galleries in D.C. The first was the Damon Art Gallery-Le Champs' in the Watergate Hotel in 1975 where Williams was an Artist-in-Residence. The second, where he served as curator and director, was the Mayflower Gallery in the Mayflower Hotel from 1975-1979; here he sold works on paper by Monet, Manet, Degas, Goya, Rembrandt, Picasso and Gauguin as well as work by Diego Rivera, Native Americans White Buffalo, Robert Red Bird, Black Hawk and Seaborn and African-American artists Jacob Lawrence, Romare Bearden and Charles White.
Throughout his artmaking career, Williams has experimented with a variety of subjects, styles and media. His portraits of musicians and jazz artists Billie Holliday, Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk, as well as of actors and political figures such as Malcolm X and Martin Luther King have been the primary subject of his work. He also depicts genre subjects, such as his 1980 Hassidic series, and modern compositions such as African Wedding. He works in the media of charcoal and pen and ink for its immediacy, pastel, acrylic and oils. Williams was the first artist to advertise the availability of his work, specifically reproductions of Crying Child, in Ebony; he also advertised in Jet and Essence.
Bay Bay Williams has received regional acclaim for his work, as well as significant commissions from well-known celebrities and politicians. In 1998, Baltimore Mayor Kurt Shmoke presented the Living Legend Award to Williams at a celebration held at the Great Blacks in Wax Museum. And in 1997, he was commissioned by the Maryland Coalition of Women for Responsive Government, Inc. to paint a portrait of Robert F. Kennedy, father of former Maryland Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, who was being presented an Award of Excellence for Outstanding Women in Government Service. Other patrons and owners include: Muhammed Ali, Parren J. Mitchell, Congressman and founder of the Congressional Black Caucus, the Rouse Company for a sculpture in Columbia, Maryland, the John F. Kennedy Children's Center at Johns Hopkins Hospital for a portrait celebrating the opening of the Center. Williams has been invited to speak at the Baltimore Museum of Art on America's first African-American portrait painter, Joshua Johnson. His work is in private collections throughout the country and world. Exhibitions of Williams' work have been held at Morgan State University, Essex Community College and Montpelier Cultural Arts Center.
Art-related Employment: graphic artist; illustrator; painter; gallery curator; gallery director
Selected References: Exhibition Brochure, Human Emotions: An Art Exhibit by Matthew "Bay Bay" Williams, presented by the Black Student Union, Essex Community College, February 8-28, 1991.
Exhibition Brochure, Matthew "Bay Bay" Williams: Paintings and Pastels, Montpelier Cultural Arts Center, September 6-October 29, 2002.
Single-Artist Exhibitions: Human Emotions: An Art Exhibit by Matthew "Bay Bay" Williams, presented by the Black Student Union, Essex Community College, February 8-28, 1991.
Matthew "Bay Bay" Williams: Paintings and Pastels, Montpelier Cultural Arts Center, September 6-October 29, 2002.
Matthew Williams: A Retrospective, Harbor Court Hotel, 1996.
Multiple-Artist Exhibitions: Association of Black Arts East, curated by Berkeley Thompson, Turner Hall, Baltimore, Maryland, 1969.
Greater Baltimore Arts Festival, Hopkins Place, with the work of other artist members of the Association of Black Arts East, Baltimore, Maryland, 1969.
Coping with Reality, James E. Lewis Museum, Morgan State University, February 6-29, 2000.
Essence Celebration, New Orleans, 1995.
African American Heritage Show, Camden Yards, Baltimore, Maryland, June 2002.
Artist Contact Information: (410) 949-7316
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