Sylvia H. Williams (née Sylvia Louise Hill; February 10, 1936 – February 28, 1996), was an American museum director, curator, art historian, and scholar of African art. She helped develop the study and appreciation of African art as a significant aesthetic and intellectual pursuit in the United States.

Life and work

Williams was born and grew up in Lincoln, Pennsylvania. Her father was a professor of English and dean at Lincoln University. She married Charlton Williams, and the couple never had children. Williams held art history degrees from

Oberlin College Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio. It is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational liberal arts college in the United S ...

in 1957 and New York University's Institute of Fine Arts in 1975. Williams served as a curator in the Department of African, Oceanic and New World Cultures at the

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

in 1973. In February 1983, Williams joined the National Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian Institution and in 1987 oversaw the move of the museum to its current location at the

National Mall The National Mall is a Landscape architecture, landscaped park near the Downtown, Washington, D.C., downtown area of Washington, D.C., the capital city of the United States. It contains and borders a number of museums of the Smithsonian Institut ...

in Washington, D.C. During her time at this museum, she was dedicated to elevating the museum's reputation, whereby she helped the museum acquire more than 845 works of both traditional and modern African art for exhibition, including sculpture, photography, and textiles. She emphasized the importance of connoisseurship in the appreciation and display of African art. In 1983, Williams received a Candace Award for History from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women. In 1989, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters by

Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educatio ...

, and the following year (1990), she received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts by

. She served as president of the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) from 1994 to 1995. She died in Washington D.C. at age 60 from complications with a brain aneurysm. In October 1997, the National Museum of African Art of the Smithsonian Institution launched the exhibition ''The Poetics of the Line: Seven Artists of the Nsukka group'', which was also the inaugural exhibition of the Sylvia H. Williams Gallery named in her honor.

Exhibitions

* 1973: African Art of the Dogon * 1976: Black South Africa, Contemporary Graphics * 1981: African Furniture and Household Objects * 1981: Art of the Archaic Indonesians * 1989: Icons, Ideals and Power in the Art of Africa * 1991: The Art of the Personal Object (aesthetic value of utilitarian objects in African cultures) * 1993: Astonishment and Power: the Eyes of Understanding Kongo Minkisi

Publications

* 1974: ''Contemporary Graphics''; an essay for African Art as Philosophy * 1976: ''Black South Africa''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Sylvia American art curators American women curators American art historians Historians of African art Oberlin College alumni New York University Institute of Fine Arts alumni 1936 births 1996 deaths Women art historians 20th-century American historians People from Lincoln, Pennsylvania Deaths from intracranial aneurysm Smithsonian Institution people Directors of the National Museum of African Art Curators of African art African-American museum directors Women museum directors Historians from Pennsylvania 20th-century American women writers American women historians Friends' Central School alumni 20th-century African-American women

Life and work

Exhibitions

Publications

See also

References