Nicholas Charles Williams

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nicholas Charles Williams (born 1961 in Surrey) is an English painter.

Williams has earned a reputation as one of Britain's foremost realist painters. He first found critical acclaim when he was chosen by the London Evening Standard art critic Brian Sewell for his "Critic's Choice" exhibition in 1991.

His work draws upon aspects of human behavior - its drives and forces - conveyed through direct observational painting and underpinned with symbolism. It has been described by the Financial Times critic William Packer as being ‘steeped not just in the imagery and techniques of the Renaissance and the Baroque, but daring the attempt to match them in pictorial scope and ambition. And in taking on their great allegorical and spiritual themes, in spirit at least if not always to the actual letter, he is particularly close to the masters of the early Baroque and the followers of Caravaggio, and especially to Georges de la Tour and perhaps Valentin’.

Williams showed his large-scale painting 'Desideratum' in Liverpool Cathedral for the opening month of the European Capital of Culture 2008. The painting is currently on show at the historic St Mary-le-Bow Church, Cheapside, London and will remain there until June 2008.

Williams has exhibited widely, with solo shows at the Russell-Cotes Museum, Bournemouth; Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro and St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh. In 2001 he was awarded the Hunting Art Prize. Recent group exhibitions have included the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize, London; the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, London; the Holburne Dukes Portrait Prize, Holburne Museum of Art, Bath and New English Art Club, Mall Galleries, London

After studying at Richmond College in 1979 Williams spent a period travelling and surfing before settling in Cornwall where he has lived for over 25 years. His studio is a former lifeboat station in Newquay on the north coast.

Contents

[edit] Selected Quotes

William Packer, Art Critic: “Nicholas Charles Williams is one of British Art’s well-kept secrets.. even so his reputations is growing fast as both one of the most accomplished figurative artist of his generation, and one of the most unusual. Indeed there is no one else that I can think of who places himself quite so firmly in the great tradition of early Baroque, yet with no sense of anachronism or pastiche.”[1]

Ian Dejardin, Director, Dulwich Picture Gallery: "Williams may paint like a modern-day Counter-Reformation artist, but his subject matter is worlds away and unique to him, visually and intellectually gripping."[2]

Brian Sewell, Art critic: "The quality of the painting seemed to me astounding"[3]

Mark Bills, Curator of Paintings Prints & Drawings Museum of London: “An artist who has such a comfortable and informed relationship with the art of the past...he is able to draw on a large number of sources to produce fresh and vibrant images drawn and explored with consummate skill....they emerge from observation and the intimacy of the artist with his subject. “[4]

[edit] Collections

  • Bournemouth Central Public Library
  • Bluestone Design, Plymouth
  • Hunting PLC, London

[edit] Selected Bibliography

  • 1995 Daily Telegraph, Mail on Sunday, Sunday Express
  • 2001 Art Review, London Evening Standard, Financial Times, Galleries
  • 2003 Daily Telegraph, Hunting Art Prizes 25th Anniversary Catalogue: William Packer
  • 2004 New York Times, Sunday Herald, Scotland
  • 2006 Madame Figaro Voyage Japon

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Financial Times, January 2005
  2. ^ Desideratum exhibition catalogue, 2004
  3. ^ Daily Telegraph, 1995
  4. ^ Opening speech, Nicholas Charles WIlliams, Drawings at Russell-Cotes Museum, Oct 2004