Red Paper Cup is a color etching and aquatint created circa 2005 by American artist Don Williams. It was published by Eastside Editions and the paper bears the publisher’s chop in the lower left. Red Paper Cup is pencil signed, titled and editioned as an AP. It was printed from four plates on a sheet of ivory Cotton Rag wove paper in an edition of 25 plus proofs. The platemark measures 17-3/4 x 8-1/4 inches. Our inventory number for this work is 23653.
Rather than an annoyed response to a piece of litter, Williams transforms the red paper cup into an object of beauty. Its thin, elongated straw rests gracefully against the powerful vertical of the fence. The dramatic light thrust upon it separates the cup from the dark background and gives it a sense of power. In history, the color red was the very symbol of power and its use was reserved for the cardinals of the church or royalty. Williams’ red cup is evidence of the potency of the color and our visceral response to it.
Don Williams, painter and printmaker, was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1941. At the end of his sophomore year at University of Nebraska, Williams was awarded the Max Beckmann scholarship to study at the Brooklyn Museum School in New York from 1961 to 1962, where he focused on sculpture and painting. After returning to Lincoln, he earned his BFA from the University of Nebraska in 1964. In 1966, he received his MFA from Tulane University, New Orleans. Williams taught for three years in Louisiana and South Carolina before moving to San Francisco Bay Area in 1969.
His resume lists numerous group exhibitions and over thirty solo exhibitions between the years 1969 and 2014. Williams has been awarded the William-Llewellyn Foundation Art Grant, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts Residence, the George Sugarman Foundation Artist Grant, the Sonoma County Arts Council Grant, and the San Francisco Arts Commission Award.
The work of Don Williams is represented in numerous corporation collections as well as the permanent collections of the Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska, Lincoln; the Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, South Carolina; and the Knoxville Museum of Art, Tennessee.
