William T. Williams

Walter's Advice

In 1968, William T. Williams began his ongoing series of large-scale geometric paintings that feature a recurring diamond shape. In Walter’s Advice, Williams creates a tension between quadrilateral and curvilinear forms: Circular shapes abruptly intersect the overlapping rhombuses, creating what Williams calls “small geometric incidents.” Filled with muted hues of chartreuse, magenta, dark bluish-green, and sandstone brown, Walter’s Advice also showcases, as Williams states, his interest in “colors that are on the verge of becoming mud.”

Williamsoften titles these colorful geometric paintings after real individuals in his life. Walter's Advice likely refers to Williams’s cousin, Walter Jones, who was a noted writer, playwright, and actor. Williams has credited Jones with suggesting the name for the public art collective Smokehouse Associates that he co-founded in 1968. Walter’s Advice then might allude to Jones’s advice about the collective’s moniker.