MINISTER of Culture, Youth and Sport, Dr. Frank Anthony was presented with a personal copy of the book ‘The Art of Denis Williams’ yesterday.Presentation of the work by Evelyn Williams, took place in his Main Street, Georgetown office and the recipient acknowledged that the art of Denis Williams “is a bit unknown in Guyana.”
But, he said, persons are more aware of his work in archaeology. The minister said this really will fill a gap in this country and added: “I’m sure that, once this book is made available in bookstores countrywide, it will be filling that void of Denis Williams’ work.”
According to the author, who is the daughter of the late Denis Williams, until now, only visitors to the National Gallery of Guyana would have had any chance of recognising just how outstanding an international artist was the latter.
She said the book presents a unique and long overdue opportunity for the reader to access his art in all its range and variety, including  paintings and drawings held by the family, rarely, if ever, seen before.
According to her, what the book presents is a story of both an outstanding talent, praised worldwide and a journey of searching integrity in which Williams placed the necessity of his vision before any urge to win the plaudits of fame and fortune in the art world.

CONSTANT NEED
She pointed out that it is a narrative of a constant need to expand the forms of her father and his art and to escape from constriction.
The daughter said it begins in the narration of a young artist whose exceptional promise brought him a scholarship and the means of escape from the complacent cultural backwardness of colonial British Guiana to the modernistic ferment of British art in the immediate post-war period.
She highlighted that Denis Williams was one of the few people who retraced the third passage to return home through Africa.
“Turning his back on growing success in Britain, Williams contemplated a return to a still pre-independent Guyana but then did what many Caribbean artists and writers only talked about: made the return to Africa where he painted, wrote his outstanding novels and engaged in important archaeological and art-historical work, culminating in his book ‘Icon and image: a study of sacred and secular forms of African classical art’,” she said.
Evelyn Williams said, in 1967, her father returned to Guyana, where he farmed, continued to paint, pursued research into the pre-historic cultures of this country, established the first formal, national school of art and contributed, tirelessly, to the role of art in the project of nation building until his death in 1998.
She explained that he used art and its formal demands to think deeply about the issues of race and identity, about the national and international and the relationship between the individual artist and the dominant trends of his time.
With more than 60 colour illustrations and many more in black and white, along with a detailed chronology and bibliography, ‘The Art of Denis Williams’ presents a rich and rewarding portrait of an artist whose vision continues to demand attention.
Evelyn Williams is a researcher, painter and writer, born in London, England and trained at Stoke-on-Trent College of Art. She currently lives in Fife, Scotland, although she has lived in Europe, Africa and the Caribbean, and has studios both in Scotland and Guyana.