ARRINGTON WILLIAMS CONTINUES ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM IN THE RIVER ARTS DISTRICT OF ASHEVILLE

What do Jackson Pollack, Black Mountain College and a total solar eclipse have in common? They were all major influences on the artistic development of Arrington Williams, one of Asheville’s River District Artists. His card reads “Arrington Williams, Abstract Paintings of Energy and Light” and his paintings convey a sense of light that arises from his life history.

John Arrington Williams’ early years in Virginia were idyllic. His father was headmaster of Christ Church School on the Rappahannock River and then the Blue Ridge School in Green County, Virginia, seven miles down from Skyline Drive in the Blue Ridge Mountains. At one school, he had access to boats. At the other, he had access to horses. Coming of age in the 1960’s, he checked out the University of South Carolina (one semester) and George Washington University (two semesters) before dropping out but staying in Washington taking studio courses at the Corcoran Gallery.

He studied with William Woodward (now a noted muralist whose works are included in the White House Permanent Collection) and Frank Wright (a figurative painter and printmaker who is now professor emeritus at George Washington University). From them, Williams learned drawing and representational painting. But it was Thomas Downing (1928-1985), who taught at the Corcoran for only three years (1965-68) who had the major influence on Williams’ future art. Downing was an exponent of color field painting, which had evolved out of Abstract Expressionism. Williams became enamored of the Washington Color School, Abstract Expressionism, and in particular Jackson Pollock. To this day, Arrington Williams’ paintings have paint splatters as a signature feature.

I have grown to expect the influence of Black Mountain College to show up everywhere in the cultural life of Western North Carolina. Tom Downing was a student and later a colleague of Kenneth Noland, co-founder of the Washington Color School of painters. Noland was a native of Asheville who had studied with Ilya Bolotowsky and Josef Albers at Black Mountain College beginning in 1946. So Arrington Williams has an artistic lineage that makes him a grandchild of Black Mountain College.

How does the full eclipse of the sun enter our narrative? On March 7, 1970 a total solar eclipse was observable in North America from Mexico to Newfoundland. Totality occurred along the coastline of the Carolinas and later Cape Cod. Along with some friends, Arrington Williams drove down the sand from Virginia Beach to Corolla, NC. In that era, there was no road to the northern limits of the Outer Banks. You had to drive through the dunes. His experience of seeing ribbons of light on the sand, of seeing the Corolla lighthouse automatically turn on, and of viewing with the naked eye the sun’s corona, were life-changing.

So works such as “Journey of Light,” the series of 5’x3’ paintings that he began in 1997 and that have been born slowly over time, had their genesis in Abstract Expressionism, Black Mountain College and a solar eclipse.

Arrington Williams is dedicated to gestural painting. He primarily uses acrylics, but his pigment choices and his use of clear glaze overcoatings make the finished paintings resemble oil paintings. He had lived in England (where he met his wife) and in the Washington area and elsewhere before settling in Asheville in 1998. He shared studio space in the River Arts District with prolific artist T.L. Lange until Lange’s death in 2001 at age 36. Williams returned to the River Arts District with his own studio (#230 Riverview Station) at 191 Lyman Street. His studio is open most Fridays or by appointment. He can be reached at (828) 319-9094. Further information may be found at his website www.arringtonwilliams.com.

Rose Elegante, Light 38 & Fantasy Dream 1 © Arrington Williams

© 2009 Edward C. McIrvine

Arts Spectrum column #447

August 21, 2009