Aubrey Williams
Apparition
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Victoria and Albert Museum
London, United Kingdom
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
- Checked
- 7 days ago
- In this state since
- Sep 25, 2026
- Source
- The museum's own collection data
About the painting
The work of artist Aubrey Williams displays a range of visual influences and cultural perspectives; from classical music and pre-Columbian iconography, to science fiction and ecology. Williams also drew inspiration from the stories and symbols of the indigenous peoples of Guyana although his artistic practice defies simple classification as either ‘Caribbean’ or ‘British’.
Read on
‘Apparition’, a gouache on paper, is typical of Williams’ work in its energy and colour. Painted in 1987, it follows a body of work entitled the Olmec-Maya series which sought to uncover the elemental forces lying behind pre-Columbian iconography. One critic observed how ‘the Sun Disc and other symbols and hieroglyphics of this lost cosmology became alive as poignant elements in a most powerfully expressed phase of work’ (Denis Bowen, 1989). It might also be noted, in respect of the imagery of this work, that after coming to live in Britain (in the early 1950s) Williams became interested in the ancient henge monuments of these islands.
Victoria and Albert Museum
Particulars
- Accession number
- E.595-1996
In the catalog
Sources
- Victoria and Albert Museum: the museum's own open data · fetched 7 days ago
- Image: Victoria and Albert Museum — © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
