EmmettWilliams

Biography
Emmett Williams was an American poet and performer of experimental poetry. After graduating from Kenyon College in Ohio in 1949, he moved to Europe, studying and working in France, Germany, and Switzerland. During these years, as a member of the Darmstadt Circle, he collaborated with numerous artists, including Daniel Spoerri and Claus Bremer. In 1962, he took part in the “Fluxus Internationale Festspiele Neuester Musik” in Wiesbaden and, since then, regularly participated in Fluxus concerts and events, becoming the movement’s European coordinator. The later unconventional autobiography My Life in Flux – and Vice Versa (Stuttgart: Edition Hansjörg Mayer, 1991) brings together documents and anecdotes from Williams’s journey between the United States, Europe, and Asia, providing precise and unique documentation of his participation in the Fluxus movement. Returning to the United States in 1966, he became editor-in-chief of Something Else Press until 1970, collaborating on some of the publishing house’s most essential works, including Claes Oldenburg’s Store Days (1961), and editing the outstanding Anthology of Concrete Poetry (1967). Williams was one of the most brilliant protagonists of experimental poetry, often using humor and mock seriousness with clever playfulness. His most influential publications include 13 Variations on 6 Words of Gertrude Stein (1965) and sweethearts (1967), a long, intimate concrete poem cycle. In 1982, while living in Berlin with his wife and great supporter Ann Nöel, Williams had an exhibition at the Nationalgalerie in Berlin, titled Schemes and Variations, which was attended by Francesco Conz and members of Fluxus. The relationship of sincere friendship and mutual esteem between Williams and Conz is corroborated by the numerous photographs, editions, and unique works produced in Asolo and Verona over the course of almost thirty years of collaboration. In 1980, Williams was an artist in residence of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program; and in 1996, he was honored for his life’s work with the Hannah Höch Prize. Williams taught at numerous universities, including the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design in Halifax, and the Berlin University of the Arts (HdK). His works have been exhibited in numerous international museums, including the Centre Pompidou in Paris (1983), the Berlinische Galerie in Berlin (1996), and the Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund (2005). Emmett Williams’s archive is currently part of the Getty Research Institute.
Artworks (49)
- Emmett Williams
Second Malindi Concrete Poem, 1990 - Emmett Williams
Untitled, 1995 - Emmett Williams
Bert Brecht, 1958/1989, 2001 - Emmett Williams
African Fiesta, 1990 - Emmett Williams
Italian Lesson, 1989/ 1968 - Emmett Williams
Untitled, 1993 - Robert Watts, Emmett Williams
Fun With Fluxus, 1984, 1985 - Emmett Williams
Seventh Malindi Concrete Poem, 1990 - Emmett Williams
Stained Glass Windows for the Fluxus Cathedral, 1988 - Emmett Williams
Untitled, 1989 - Emmett Williams
Untitled, 1957 (1989) - Emmett Williams
Fifth Malindi Concrete Poem, 1990 - Philip Corner, Alain Gibertie, Eilen Gruber,…
Fun With Fluxus, 1984, 1992 - Emmett Williams
16 Lovers: A Little Autobiography for F.C., 1990 - Emmett Williams
Happy Ending Bad, 1990 - Emmett Williams
Banana Piano (instructions), 1988 - Emmett Williams
The Four Seasons, 1983 - Emmett Williams
Untitled - Emmett Williams
Sixth Malindi Concrete Poem, 1990 - Robert Watts, Emmett Williams
Fun With Fluxus, 1984, 1989 - Emmett Williams
Fifth Malindi Concrete Poem, 1990 - Emmett Williams
Fifth Malindi Concrete Poem, 1990 - Emmett Williams
Second Malindi Concrete Poem, 1990 - Emmett Williams
Stained Glass Windows for the Fluxus Cathedral, 1988 - Emmett Williams
Ezra Loomis Pound, 1958/1989, 2001 - Emmett Williams
A Poem for Rainer Maria Rilke, 1990 - Emmett Williams
Grappa Williams, 1992 - Emmett Williams
Sondern 4, 1980 - Emmett Williams
What Happened to Finger, Father? - Emmett Williams
First Malindi Concrete Poem, 1990 - Daniel Spoerri, Various artists, Emmett…
Six Variations Upon a Spoerri Landscape, 1973 - Emmett Williams
Sixth Malindi Concrete Poem, 1990 - Emmett Williams
Stained Glass Windows for the Fluxus Cathedral, 1988 - Emmett Williams
Guess what this is! - Roy Adzak, Anna Banana, Roberto Comini, Robert…
20 Jahre Rainer Verlag, 1986 - Emmett Williams
Dance Fragments, 1980 - Emmett Williams
Seventh Malindi Concrete Poem, 1990 - Emmett Williams
Second Malindi Concrete Poem, 1990 - Emmett Williams
Stained Glass Windows for the Fluxus Cathedral, 1988 - Emmett Williams
First Malindi Concrete Poem, 1990 - Emmett Williams
A What Is It? - Emmett Williams
Stained Glass Windows for the Fluxus Cathedral, 1988 - Emmett Williams
Meditation #1, 1983-1986 - Emmett Williams
First Malindi Concrete Poem, 1990 - Emmett Williams
This Is the Negative Banana Piano, 1989 - Emmett Williams
Fluxus Alchemy, 1990 - Emmett Williams
Help, 1957/1989, 2001 - Emmett Williams
A Fluxus Madman's Diary, 1989 - Emmett Williams
African Fiesta, 1990