Charleston artist and native Manning Williams is returning to Florence Museum on Sunday to discuss and answer questions from the public concerning his show, “a visual commentary,” which is on display at the museum.
Williams’ show at Florence Museum is abstract art, a different approach from representational art for which he is better known.
The motivation for such an exhibit, Williams said, emerged from his experience as a teacher in the 1990s at the College of Charleston, where several students expressed a wish to learn more about comic art.
“There was an opportunity for kids to learn, but there was no teacher who was willing to teach comic art,” he said.
Williams offered to teach comic art and studied the work of artists involved in that particular field in preparation.
His show at Florence Museum is the culmination of more than 10 years’ worth of work, a fusion of his interest in comic art and abstraction. The exhibit wasn’t Williams’ idea, though. It was that of the museum’s executive director Andrew Stout and Charleston artist and gallerist Lese Corrigan.
Corrigan, owner of Corrigan Gallery in Charleston, introduced Stout to Williams and his work.
Stout and Corrigan later convinced Williams to do a show of all abstracts at Florence Museum.
Corrigan said Florence Museum is the perfect space for Williams’ large abstract works.
“(My gallery) isn’t that big, so (it’s wonderful) to be able to really stand back and get the connectedness of the painting,” she said.
Florence Museum curator Stephen Motte said Williams’ current exhibit has a very telling effect on people — not just because of its scale but its abstract imagery.
“The ‘effect’ of viewing abstract work versus realism is apparent on people’s faces as soon as they walk in the door,” Motte said. “These paintings ... offer a degree of participation that you’re not always going to get with more literal art. You’re able to explore them on many different levels and you’re going to see something different each time you look at them.”
Corrigan, who has followed Williams’ work for years, said that while Williams’ abstracts differ stylistically from his landscapes, the desire to tell a story remains the same.
“The landscape was about telling a story about the Southern life and the universality of American life,” she said, but the “fragmentation you see (in Williams’ paintings demonstrates that) if we don’t all work together, how do you expect us to find a peaceful solution?”
“There’s also a subtle humor in some (of Williams’ paintings),” Motte said, “which gets around the idea that all art has to be so serious.”
Williams agrees.
“For the most part, I have a lot of play in my work,” he said. “There’s also awful things in it, but those things have to be dealt with.”
Williams said his most powerful impetus for painting is the desire to explore.
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