Peter Williams was a chronicler of current and historical events, interspersing pictorial narratives with personal anecdotes and fictional characters to create colorful paintings about the diverse experiences of Black Americans. With boldness and humor, Williams tackled even the darkest of subjects, including but not limited to police brutality, lynching, slavery, mass incarceration, and other realms of racial oppression. He used cultural criticism to form new creation myths, retelling the history of America from fresh and cosmic perspectives. He was recently retired from his position as senior professor in the Fine Arts Department at the University of Delaware and had previously taught for seventeen years at Wayne State University.

Born in Nyack, New York, Williams earned his MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and his BFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. He was the recipient of a 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship Award and the Artists’ Legacy Foundation’s 2020 Artist Award, and in 2018 he was inducted into the National Academy of Design. He was also recognized with numerous other awards, including a Djerassi artist residency (2018), Joan Mitchell awards (2004, 2007), Ford Foundation fellowships (1985, 1987), and a McKnight Foundation fellowship (1983).

Williams’ paintings are held in the permanent collections of many major institutions, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Walker Art Center, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Detroit Institute of Arts, and the Delaware Art Museum.

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Peter Williams passed away in August 2021.