Charles T. Williams Retrospective

Charles Truett Williams worked in the Fort Worth area from the late 1940s through 1966, spending twenty of his forty-eight years involved in intense artistic production. Before his death in 1966 he contributed immense vitality and acted as a catalyst for the emerging contemporary art scene in North Texas. An entire sculptural range can be seen in the legacy of his work.

Eighteen months spent in France with the Army Corps of Engineers 1945-1946 allowed Williams to meet artists and see art only previously read about. Picasso, Braque, Brancusi, and Miro, and the African and Pre-Colombian art all influenced Williams. Fort Worth collector Ted Weiner gave Williams his initial important sculptural commissions, including Earth Mother, made for the Weiner's garden from five large blocks of Carthage marble. Metals also captured Williams’ attention as did work with found objects. In his transformative hands, discarded carburetors became Mayan ballplayers, a Model A Ford jack became a portrait of Jim Love.

Williams completed many public and commercial commissions. The Ridglea Country Club, Fort Worth, was an early patron. Numerous works were designed for Ted Weiner's garden. Other commissions included Hanging Screen, c. 1961, for the Sheraton Hotel in Houston; and a garden sculpture for St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Houston. With Dallas sculptor Octavio Medellin, he collaborated on mosaic murals for Temple Emanu-el, Dallas, and for the Texas Turnpike Authority, Arlington. Fine commissioned works, most notably fountains, were also done for many private homes and gardens across Texas and Oklahoma.

Diana R. Block is director of the University of North Texas Art Gallery. She lives in Dallas.