Edith Clifford Williams (1885–1971) was an early pioneer in the American abstract art movement. She was part of the circle that gathered around the photographer and modern art promoter Alfred Stieglitz. She was also a long-time confidante of

Hu Shih Hu Shih (; 17 December 1891 – 24 February 1962), also known as Hu Suh in early references, was a Chinese diplomat, essayist, literary scholar, philosopher, and politician. Hu is widely recognized today as a key contributor to Chinese libera ...

(1891–1962), who was arguably the most prominent Chinese intellectual in the first half of the 20th century. Born in Ithaca, New York, Williams—who preferred to be known as Clifford—spent most of her girlhood in New Haven, Connecticut, where her father,

Henry Shaler Williams Henry Shaler Williams (6 March 1847 – July 31, 1918) was an American geologist. He was the son of State Senator Josiah B. Williams (1810–1883). He graduated from Yale College and studied with Louis Agassiz at Cornell University. In 1871, he ...

, taught geology and paleontology at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

. After studying with the painter

John Henry Twachtman John Henry Twachtman (August 4, 1853 – August 8, 1902) was an American painter best known for his impressionist landscapes, though his painting style varied widely through his career. Art historians consider Twachtman's style of American Impr ...

and at Yale’s School of the Fine Arts, she traveled to Europe, and was enrolled briefly at the Académie Julian in Paris. Williams’s earliest known abstract painting was entitled ''1914''. In 1916, she created a piece of sculpture meant for touching, not just viewing, at the studio of Mexican artist

Marius De Zayas Marius de Zayas Enriquez y Calmet (March 13, 1880 – January 10, 1961), was an early 20th-century Mexican artist, writer and art gallery owner who was influential in the New York arts circles of the 1910s and 1920s. Life De Zayas was born to we ...

, titled Plâtre à toucher chez de Zayas. The Spanish artist and critic Francis Picabia brought a photograph of the sculpture to Paris, where it became the subject of a lecture given by French critic and poet Guillaume Apollinaire. The photograph resurfaced four years later in the French newspaper Comoedia, when Picabia cited it to refute the idea that “tactile art” had been invented by Italian Futurist Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. In 1917, Williams showed two works, 1915 and Two Rhythms, at the inaugural exhibition of the Society of Independent Artists. The latter is now on permanent exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, as part of the Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection. Williams’s father was the only member of her family to have taken her art seriously; she gave up art after his death in 1918. She fell back on her scientific training and served, with distinction, as the first full-time librarian of the Flower Veterinary Library at Cornell University from 1923 to 1946. Williams and Hu Shih exchanged more than 300 letters over the space of nearly half a century. The correspondence—uncovered in 1998 in Beijing and Taipei archives by Professor Chou Chih-p’ing of Princeton University in 1998reveals that Hu’s early social and political views were heavily influenced by Williams. Hu’s campaign for the adoption of the vernacular as the language for literary expression in China might well have been inspired by his exposure, through Williams, to the American avant-garde art movement. The correspondence also shows that the two were, for a short time, lovers; in addition to Hu, Williams had an intimate relationship with Charles Duncan, an artist who was the subject of one of Charles Demuth’s famous portrait posters.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Edith Clifford 1885 births 1971 deaths American abstract artists American women artists