Peter Williams Award
The Peter Williams Award was created in recognition of an Ox-Bow BIPOC Alum (Instructor, Faculty or Visiting Artist) whose teaching and/or mentorship exemplifies excellence and care for the student experience, life-long learning, and creative exploration. The award is named in memory of former faculty member Peter Williams who invested deeply in the students of Ox-Bow and embodied these same virtues. In 2022 the award was given to the memory of Peter Williams.
Nominations for the Peter Williams Award are open until September 6, 2024.
The selected awardee will be announced at our Winter Break fundraiser in 2025. The awardee will select a non-traditional and/or young artist for a scholarship to attend Pre-College Program, AOM or non-credit course in summer of 2025.
Headshot from Peter Williams estate via nytimes.com
Who was Peter Williams?
Peter Williams was an educator, artist, and activist who not only impacted Ox-Bow, but shaped the Arts community on a national level. He taught at Ox-Bow during the summers of 2015 and 2017. At our 2022 Winter Break Benefit, we celebrated the legacy of Williams and the influence he has had on our campus and Alumni. Following his passing, the Peter Williams Estate gifted a portion of Williams’s library to our campus and Ox-Bow announced the launch of the Peter Williams Award. The Ox-Bow Community misses the departed artist and educator and will be forever grateful for the impact he left on our campus, an impact and legacy which is still ongoing.
Peter Williams as Educator
In the classroom, Williams was known for his intentionality and vibrant spirit. With each student he found a unique way to connect. While Alumni Amanda Freymann (2015, 2017) appreciated that he never pressured her with what she “should” do to alter her painting, Elizabeth Collins (2015, 2017) recalled fondly that Williams always pushed her to the edge of her comfort zone. Collins laughed at the memory of her professor always insisting, “More color, more color!” when he visited her corner of the studio. She appreciated the push and emphasized that those two summers under Peter William’s instruction were “more profound than any other class.” Though he individually found a way to connect with each of his students, he more importantly managed to connect students to one another. In the interviews conducted with his former students, each emphasized the community Williams managed to craft during the two years he taught at Ox-Bow. In fact, a number of students even took his class a second time around. “It didn’t feel redundant,” Collins shared, partially because so much of the course was built around the communities that Williams so naturally cultivated.
Peter Williams as Activist
The paintings of Peter Williams were an extension of his voice and conviction as an activist. One of his last works that received significant attention was the George Flloyd Triptych; however, Williams had been speaking out against mass incarceration and police brutality long before it gained a new level of national attention in 2020. Williams made it his life’s work to bring attention to racial and systematic injustice: doing so in his lectures, interviews, and paintings. His friend and art critic John Yau aptly said, “Williams does not want to make anything easy for the viewer, and why should he? Preaching to the choir is not his thing. This is the real power of Williams’s work: he wears his feelings, fears, worries, and affections on his sleeve.” Just as the colors of Williams’s paintings are unabashedly bold and direct, so too was the artist’s intent each time he approached a new canvas.
“I’m not shy to put him next to Picasso at all.”
Peter Williams as Artist
In an interview with Williams’s widow Eliska (Elizabeth) Williams, she shared behind the scenes insights on his practice. Until nearly the last day, Williams would paint in his studio, which was eventually moved into his bedroom. He was dedicated to his art, constantly producing new works, each as provocative and inspiring as the last. Noting how many mediums he tried and stylistic periods he experimented with, Eliska said, “I’m not shy to put him next to Picasso at all.” In many ways his work as an artist can’t be separated from his identity as an educator or activist. He cared deeply about sharing his knowledge and experiences with others, whether that pertained to history, culture, or artistic practices. Because of this, Williams is an artist who will continue to exist not just on canvas but through the impact he imparted on both viewers and students.
Image Credits
Headshot from Peter Williams estate; Classroom images courtesy of Amanda Freymann, Ox-Bow Alumni and former student of Peter; Artwork Images Courtesy of Eric Firestone Gallery, New York; Photograph by Jenny Gorman; Peter Williams, Hubris, 2013, oil and pencil on canvas, 48h x 54w inches; Install image from PETER WILLIAMS: NYACK at Eric Firestone Gallery, New York; Peter Williams, Masterclass, 2012, oil and pencil on canvas, 48h x 60w inches; Install image from PETER WILLIAMS: NYACK at Eric Firestone Gallery, New York; Peter Williams, Event Horizon, Heart Attack, 2018, paint marker and pencil on canvas, 60h x 72w inches; Install image from PETER WILLIAMS: NYACK at Eric Firestone Gallery, New York; Peter Williams, Harlequin, 2014, oil on canvas, 24h x 18w inches