Red Paper Cup

Don Williams

Among the subjects Don Williams often focuses on in his work are forgotten man-made objects, the varied, unassuming detritus of the human condition. This is both juxtaposed and complemented by his vast and dramatic landscapes of the Midwest: while radically different in scope, the concepts behind his chosen subjects feature a common thread in their sense of loneliness - or perhaps of the beauty found in isolation.

Here, a common paper cup doled out by fast-food joints, replete with its familiar waxy sheen, rests on a fence post. The cup and the fence post - biproducts of progress - are brightly illuminated by sunlight made more vivid by a background shrouded in darkness. Below unfurl the leaves of the blackberry, one of nature’s most hardy soldiers.

Rather than an annoyed response to this piece of litter, Williams transforms the red paper cup into an object of beauty. Its thin, elongated straw rests gracefully against the powerful vertical of the fence. The dramatic light thrust upon it separates the cup from the dark background and gives it a sense of power. In history, the color red was the very symbol of power and its use was reserved for the cardinals of the church or royalty. Williams’ red cup is evidence of the potency of the color and our visceral response to it.

Don Williams, painter and printmaker, was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1941. At the end of his sophomore year at University of Nebraska, Williams was awarded the Max Beckmann scholarship to study at the Brooklyn Museum School in New York from 1961 to 1962, where he focused on sculpture and painting. After returning to Lincoln, he earned his BFA from the University of Nebraska in 1964. In 1966, he received his MFA from Tulane University, New Orleans. Williams taught for three years in Louisiana and South Carolina before moving to San Francisco Bay Area in 1969.

His resume lists numerous group exhibitions and over thirty solo exhibitions between the years 1969 and 2014. Williams has been awarded the William-Llewellyn Foundation Art Grant, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts Residence, the George Sugarman Foundation Artist Grant, the Sonoma County Arts Council Grant, and the San Francisco Arts Commission Award.

The work of Don Williams is represented in numerous corporation collections as well as the permanent collections of the Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska, Lincoln; the Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, South Carolina; and the Knoxville Museum of Art, Tennessee.