Charles Truett Williams worked in the Fort Worth area from the 
late 1940s through 1966, spending twenty of his forty-eight years 
involved in intense artistic production. Before his death in 1966 
he contributed immense vitality and acted as a catalyst for the 
emerging contemporary art scene in North Texas. In the legacy of 
his work, an entire sculptural range can be seen.


Eighteen months spent in France with the Army Corps of Engineers 
1945-1946 allowed Williams to meet artists and see art only 
previously read about. Picasso, Braque, Brancusi, and Miro, and 
the African and Pre-Columbian art all influenced Williams. Fort 
Worth collector Ted Weiner gave Williams his initial important 
sculptural commissions, including Earth Mother, made for 
the Weiner's garden from five large blocks of Carthage marble. 
Metals also captured Williams' attention as did work with found 
objects. In his transformative hands, discarded carburetors 
became Mayan ballplayers, a Model A Ford jack became a portrait 
of Jim Love. 


Williams completed many public and commercial commissions. The 
Ridglea Country Club, Fort Worth, was an early patron. Numerous 
works were designed for Ted Weiner's garden. Other commissions 
included Hanging Screen, c. 1961, for the Sheraton Hotel 
in Houston; and a garden sculpture for St. Martin's Episcopal 
Church in Houston. With Dallas sculptor Octavio Medellin, he 
collaborated on mosaic murals for Temple Emanu-el, Dallas, and 
for the Texas Turnpike Authority, Arlington. Fine commissioned 
works, most notably fountains, were also done for many private 
homes and gardens across Texas and Oklahoma.




DIANA R. BLOCK is director of the University of North 
Texas Art Gallery. She lives in Dallas.