Born in San Diego, Guy Williams was primarily a self-taught painter, having attended Monty Lewis’ Coronado School of Art for a short time on a scholarship. In the 1950s, Williams became one of the leading contemporary painters and teachers in San Diego. He shared a studio in Spanish Village with Fred Holle for a time and later taught for the School of Arts and Crafts at the Art Center in La Jolla.
Born in San Diego, Guy Williams was primarily a self-taught painter, having attended Monty Lewis’ Coronado School of Art for a short time on a scholarship. In the 1950s, Williams became one of the leading contemporary painters and teachers in San Diego. He shared a studio in Spanish Village with Fred Holle for a time and later taught for the School of Arts and Crafts at the Art Center in La Jolla.
An avid printmaker, Williams was particularly interested in monotypes. These he exhibited with the San Diego Art Guild, at the Art Center in La Jolla and in the 1959 survey exhibition “Arts of Southern California – V: Prints,” at the Long Beach Museum of Art. Williams also contributed to the Black Folio with six other local artists (printed in 1961 by Irwin Hollander and exhibited the same year at the Art Center La Jolla), and published two books incorporating monotypes.
The first book, The Painter’s Notebook and Poems For Painters (also printed by Hollander in 1961), according to Dave Hampton “…contained three jewel-like original prints, together with Williams' prose and poetry. Williams' sense of humor is put to use in such pieces as "A Note On Art Criticism," a parody of vacuous critical writing that offers mock reviews of his hapless Art Center colleagues.”
Of Williams’ second publication, Poems for Painters (1963), according to Hampton, “…turned type and ideas into visual compositions, or concrete poetry. The book is made up of what he called "typewriter drawings," each dedicated to a well-known artist.”
After leaving San Diego in 1964, Williams taught at Chouinard Art Institute, Pomona College and UC Santa Barbara. While teaching at Pomona College in the early 1970s Williams revisited his typewriter drawings, including some of them in a new booklet called Random Notes On Painting.
During his career, Williams exhibited in group and one-man shows at Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, UC Santa Barbara, UC Berkeley and Santa Barbara Museum of Art. He died on February 24, 2004 at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara after a lengthy illness.
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