Christopher Williams (born 1956 in Los Angeles) is an American conceptual artist and fine-art photographer who lives in Cologne and works in Düsseldorf.
Early life and education Williams was born in 1956 in Los Angeles, California. His father worked in Hollywood as a special effects artist. Christopher Williams MoMA In the 1970s and early 1980s, he studied at the California Institute of the Arts where he received his B.F.A. and M.F.A. under the first generation of West Coast conceptual artists including John Baldessari, Michael Asher, and Douglas Huebler.
Work Writing in Artforum in 2007, art critic Tim Griffin described Williams's approach as sociophotographicTim Griffin "Christopher Williams: Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Bologna, Bologna," Artforum, January 2007. but more generally can be described as a political and historical practice. It has been said that Williams works within the tradition of institutional critique within what Sven Lütticken describes as an informal group, along with Willem de Rooij, Jeroen de Rijke and Mathias Poledna, that investigates the "parameters of the exhibition space."Lütticken, 122 Chronologically, however, he belongs to The Pictures Generation. In 1982 Williams had his first solo exhibition at Jancar Kuhlenschmidt Gallery in Los Angeles. Angola to Vietnam is a photography portfolio of glass flowers.This Will Have Been: Art, Love & Politics in the 1980s, February 11 – June 3, 2012 Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.
In 2000, at an exhibition at David Zwirner Gallery, in New York, Williams showed twenty photographs including a series of pictures of a 1964 Renault automobile on its side. Writing in The New York Times, Ken Johnson said, "the Renault was made in a French factory where significant revolutionary activities took place in 1968; hence it is tipped up like a barricade."
Williams' photographs oftentimes show increasingly obsolescent film-based equipment—cameras, lenses and darkroom gear—as beautiful and precise as catalog product shots. The accompanying text adds detail about how the equipment was used. Made by a professional photographer who follows Williams's directions, the conventionally scaled pictures have the glossy lucidity of commercial photographs.
Educator Since October 2008 he has been a professor in photography at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf.
Personal life Williams' wife Ann Goldstein is curator and deputy director and chair of modern and contemporary art at the Art Institute of Chicago.Organization: Directors: Ann Goldstein , Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Retrieved on 2012-09-27.Nina Siegal, Restoring a Long-Missing Dutch Reference Point, The New York Times, 2012. Retrieved on 2012-09-27.
Publications Christopher Williams: The production Line of Happiness. . Exhibition catalogue. London: Whitechapel Gallery, 2014. Walther König, 2014. Christopher Williams: Printed in Germany. Walther König, 2014. . Exhibition catalogue.
Exhibitions
Solo exhibitions 2005: Secession, Vienna 2005: Kunstverein Braunschweig, Germany 2006: Museu Serralves, Porto, Portugal 2007: Kunsthalle Zürich 2010: Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Germany 2010: Bergen Kunsthall, Norway 2011: Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen, Germany 2011: Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle, Belgium 2013: Christopher Williams: For Example: Dix-Huit Leçons Sur La Société Industrielle (Revision 18), David Zwirner, London 2014 at The Art Institute of Chicago and traveled to The Museum of Modern Art, New York 2020: Christopher Williams Model: Kochgeschirre, Kinder, Viet Nam (Angepasst zum Benutzen), C/O Berlin, Berlin 2024: Christopher Williams: Radio/Rauhfaser/Television, Neubauer Collegium, Chicago 2025: Christopher Williams: Blocking Templates, Fahrbereitschaft, Haubrok Foundation, Berlin 2025: Christopher Williams: Hand Painted Signs, Photographs, Long Play Vinyl, Audiophile Bar, Printed Matter, The Perimeter, London
Exhibitions with others 2013: 55th Venice Biennale, curated by Massimiliano Gioni
Awards 2005: Guggenheim Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation 2005–2006: Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award 2014: Photography Catalogue of the Year, Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards for Christopher Williams: The Production Line of Happiness and Christopher Williams: Printed in Germany."Announcing the Winners of The Paris Photo—Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards 2014", Aperture Foundation. Accessed 30 October 2015.
References
Literature Burton, Johanna. “Christopher Williams at David Zwirner.” Artforum (May 2008): 376-377. Ekeberg, Jonas. “Fotografiets Utvidete Felft Photography’s Expanded Field.” OM FOTOGRAFI (2005): 3-11. Godfrey, Mark. “Christopher Williams.” Artforum (May 2007): 366. Lütticken, Sven. “Gegen die Wand.” Texte Zur Kunst (June 2009): 121-123. Rattemeyer, Christian. “Christopher Williams.” Parkett No. 77 (2006):155.
External links Christopher Williams at David Zwirner Gisela Capitain Gallery Christopher Williams at MoMA