Emmett Williams

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Emmett Williams (born April 4, 1925 in Greenville , South Carolina , † February 14, 2007 in Berlin ) was an American poet , publicist , performance artist and co-founder of the Fluxus movement .

life and work

Williams grew up in the port city of Newport News , Virginia . He studied with the poet and New Criticism representative John Crowe Ransom, known in the United States, at Kenyon College in Ohio . From 1949 to 1966 he lived in France, Germany and Switzerland. He studied ethnology in Paris and was an assistant to Paul Radin in Lugano . Williams belonged with Daniel Spoerri and Claus Bremer, like Diter Rot and André Thomkins to the Darmstadt Circle of Concrete Poetry . In the 1960s he was a co-founder of the Parisian Domaine Poétique . In 1966 he returned to the US and worked until 1970 as an editor at the Something Else Press by Dick Higgins . From 1970 he held various teaching positions, including in Hamburg and Berlin.

In 1987 he founded the International Symposium of the Arts in Warsaw together with other artists . He was president of the International Art Museum in Łódź . In 1996 he was awarded the Berlinische Galerie's Hannah Höch Prize for his life's work . In 1966 he published the erotic volume of poetry "sweethearts", which is one of his most important works, in 1967 the important anthology An Anthology of Concrete Poetry and in 1992 his autobiographical work My Life in Flux - and Vice Versa .

The museum FLUXUS + , in which he is exhibited with some works in the permanent exhibition, dedicated his first special exhibition to Emmett Williams from April to July 2008 with the title "Hommage à Emmett Williams".

Works (selection)

  • concretions. Daniel Spoerri, Darmstadt; Passage bookstore Jürgen Dahl, Krefeld 1958. ( material. No. 3).
  • yes it was still there (an opera). In: nota. No. 4, Munich, 1960.
  • Cities of Germany , 1962.
  • Cities of Europe; A Stars and Stripes Publication. Stars and Stripes, Darmstadt, 1963.
  • poésie et cetera américaine (an “action poetry” anthology), Biennale de Paris, 1963.
  • at opera. New York, 1963 (full English version).
  • an active manpower policy. Paris, 1964.
  • 13 variations on 6 words by Gertrude Stein. Galerie der Spiegel, Cologne, 1965.
  • Do You Remember (for Alison Knowles ). 1966.
  • sweethearts. Edition Hansjörg Mayer , Stuttgart, 1967.
  • the last french-fried potatoe and other poems. Something Else Press, A Great Bear Pamphlet, New York, 1967. New edition: ubuclassics 2004 pdf 684k
  • the boy and the bird. Illustrated by Tom Wasmuth , edition hansjörg mayer, Stuttgart, London, Reykjavík, 1969 (edition: 350 numbered copies).
  • a valentine for noël. edition hansjörg mayer, Stuttgart, London, Reykjavík, 1973.
  • selected shorter poems. edition hansjörg mayer, Stuttgart, London, Reykjavík, 1973. Together with: Something Else Press, New York.
  • schemes & variations. Edition Mayer, Stuttgart, London 1981. (Text in German and English).
  • "German Poems" and "Light Sculptures". Rainer, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-88537-100-6 .
  • My Life in Flux and Vice Versa. Edition Mayer, Stuttgart, London 1991. New edition: Thames & Hudson, London, New York 1992, ISBN 0-500-97398-9 .
  • Soldier. edition Zédélé, Reprint collection (curated by Anne Moeglin-Delcroix and Clive Phillpot), Brest 2014. First published in A Valentine for Noel , 1973.

editor

  • An Anthology of Concrete Poetry. Something Else Press, New York, Villefranche, Frankfurt; edition hansjörg mayer, Stuttgart 1967.
  • Mr. Fluxus: a community portrait by George Maciunas 1931–1978. Collected from personal memories by Emmett Williams and Ay-O and edited by Emmett Williams and Ann Noël. Harlekin Art, Wiesbaden 1996, ISBN 3-88300-035-3 .

Sound carrier (selection)

  • Poems 1950-2003. Edition RZ, Berlin 2004. 1 record, 33 / min, 30 cm

literature

  • Literally; On the death of Fluxus artist and poet Emmett Williams. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. February 16, 2007.
  • René Block , Gabriele Knapstein (concept): A long history with many knots. Fluxus in Germany. 1962-1994. Institute for Foreign Relations , Stuttgart 1995.
  • Emmett Williams (Ed.): An anthology of concrete poetry. edition hansjörg mayer, Stuttgart; in co-edition with Something Else Press, New York 1967, p. 341.
  • Never again trouble-free! Aachen avant-garde since 1964. Kerber Verlag, 2011, ISBN 978-3-86678-602-8 .
  • SD Sauerbier: Pictures and Events of Poetry. [About the work of Emmett Williams.] = Artist. Critical lexicon of contemporary art. Edition 27. Munich 1994.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hannah Höch Prize. In: berlinischegalerie.de. Berlinische Galerie , accessed on June 25, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Williams, Emmett
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American poet, performance artist
DATE OF BIRTH April 4, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Greenville, South Carolina
DATE OF DEATH February 14, 2007
Place of death Berlin