About Bruce Williams

The visual arts have been an integral part of Bruce Williams’ life since he was a child. This early exposure to art has mediated his education, both as an artist and as a researcher and critic of the visual image.

Williams was born and raised in Great Falls, Montana, where the local Carnegie library had an impressive collection of art books that his mother checked out for him when he was but a child of seven or eight. Williams contemplated these images, and his destiny was sealed.  As a child and a youth, he studied painting and mainly concentratef on traditional landscapes.

Williams’ university education focused initially on French and German literature, and he earned a B.A, in the two fields and an M.A, in Germanic Languages and Literatures from the University of Pennsylvania. He also studied in Paris, where he immersed himself in the 1920s avant-garde He was awarded a Fulbright Grant to São Paulo, Brazil, and this experience was transformative. In Brazil, Williams focused his research on the visual arts, specifically cinema and concrete poetry. He developed a passion for experimental film, both of the silent era and the dynamic movements of the Sixties and Seventies.  

Following his doctorate at UCLA, in which his research focus was Brazilian cinema, he became a Professor of Cultural Studies at the William Paterson University of New Jersey in metropolitan New York City.  During the better part of his career here, he has conducted extensive research on international cinema and has taught a wide range of related cultural topics. Nonetheless, Williams has published on other visual arts, and these studies were instrumental in his return to painting after a hiatus, during which he honed his observational and analytical skills.

A few years ago, Williams re-engaged with painting passionately. He knew that abstract art was what he loved the most.  His painting has been inspired by his extensive world travels, and he has grown especially indebted to German expressionism, Soviet constructivism, the Brazilian avant-garde, and the contemporary arts scene of Eastern Europe, particularly of Albania, which he considers to be his second home and where he has taught frequent master classes at the Marubi Academy of Film and Multimedia.

Williams’ paintings are a testament to the breadth of life experience that he has accumulated. They convey his innermost sensations, many of which come as surprises to him when he paints! He now contributes to the international dialogue of emotion and feeling that abstract art fosters and which he has studied and analyzed for a lifetime.