Chester Williams, Chester Williams, Black Artist, Abstract Bronze, Wood African American Sculpture

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Chester L. Williams
Label on bottom, signed. Title: Promethium
Medium: Bronze, Aluminum and wood.
Approx. dimensions: 12 X 11 X … Read more Chester L. Williams
Label on bottom, signed. Title: Promethium
Medium: Bronze, Aluminum and wood.
Approx. dimensions: 12 X 11 X 4 inches.

Chester Lee Williams (1944-1919) was born in 1944, in Durham, North Carolina. Chester cultivated a creative mind that eventually led him to pursue an education in fine arts and sculpture at North Carolina Central University (BA) and the University of Michigan (MFA). In 1974, he made his way to Tallahassee and started instructing at FAMU. Students at the university have a deep appreciation for the jazz lover’s insight and skill. A lifelong artist, Chester's work has been featured in galleries and publications across the country. The body of his work produced over 45 years has evolved from smooth and supple sculptures into the more angular and defiant shapes seen in his later works. Chester has said: "All of the works are me. I still embrace every one of them." Chester enjoyed traveling and exploring different cultures. His art was influenced by his travel and knowledge of African culture. He was an educator for 37 years, teaching at Voorhees College, North Carolina Central University and Florida A&M University before retiring in 2011.
He sold his first piece of art in the ninth grade to his homeroom teacher. (That early sale paid off — years later, that teacher’s husband, the president of a bank, commissioned Williams to create a sculpture for the bank’s lobby.) Originally from North Carolina, Williams came to FAMU in 1974, after teaching art in a technical high school, drawing maps for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and even working briefly for IBM as a technical illustrator. For several years he created plaques for
Marine Corps, signs for the Forestry Service and metal, fiberglass and wood pieces for the Veterans Administration. He taught ceramics, drawing and painting in a federal prison for 14 years, and said he found a great deal of talent there. His sculptures are nearly ubiquitous in Tallahassee. There’s a figure of the first black policeman who patrolled in Frenchtown placed on Old Bainbridge Road. There’s a bust of FAMU Marching 100 founder William Foster in front of the Foster Tanner
Music Building, and a statue of Florida’s first African American secretary of state at the Black Archives. Williams also designed the bronze medallion that FAMU President James Ammons wears at official functions. He has also done a sculpture of President Barack Obama. Williams has also had national success. His work has been shown at more than 300 exhibitions around the country, and he was one of the few contemporary African American artists to be commissioned for “Absolut Expressions,” an Absolut Vodka ad campaign featuring
established artists in all genres. He has already been all over the globe visiting places such as Ghana, Togo, Benin, Egypt, Ethiopia and the Dominican Republic. Art from those places influence his work because, in the end, “it’s all from Africa. All of my work is African work,” Williams says.
Listed in numerous biographies including the Who’s Who in the South and Southwest (1981,1989), Dictionary of International Biography (1979,1984) and Who’s Who in American Art. See less