Denis Williams’s return to London and ‘Human World’

Human World Denis Williams Tempera and oil on canvas 152 x 132cm 1950 (Photo courtesy of the National Gallery of Art, Castellani House)

Back in London in mid-1950, Denis Williams (1923 – 1998) continued to paint. With the assistance of his friend, artist and art critic Wyndham Lewis, he secured gallery support for his work. Consequently, before the year was out Williams was exhibiting in London once again. In December 1950, Williams exhibited at the Gimpel Fils Gallery, in Mayfair, London. On this occasion, he showed oil paintings based on ‘The Plantation’ series he had done in Guiana alongside two finished paintings he had shown here in 1949 to an unreceptive audience – Origins and Burden or Release. Additionally, he showed a quartet of related paintings done in tempera (an egg yolk base medium) and oil which he had grouped under the title Four Dimensions of Anguish. They included Hysteria, Securities, Human World, and The Subway World.