“Conversation as Design”

Williams, who has always been interested in paintings, created a new artistic composition method called "conversation as design." It means an innovative poetic style which represents a dialogue that extends beyond the limited surface of the painter's canvas to the unconsciousness of the viewer by denying simply mimetic illusion. Significantly, he finds this artistic composition in the Cubist paintings of Juan Gris and applies it to his poetry. Both Williams and Gris have a common artistic province in poetry and painting beyond conventional perspectives. Williams feels an obvious artistic affinity for Cubist painters, especially Gris, so much so that he regards Gris as his artistic alter ego. If Picasso and Braque were the great figures of Analytic Cubism, it is Gris who became a leading exponent of Cubism and in some ways even consummator of 'Synthetic Cubism' which is said to synthesize both the abstract and the concrete. Most importantly, Williams creates his own poetic style heavily affected by Synthetic Cubism of Gris. Lots of Williams' poetry and prose in his works show imaginative and sensitive explorations of the principle of the Synthetic Cubism of Gris. Ultimately, "conversation as design" is deeply submerged in Williams' poetic imagination. Based on it, Williams creates a new poetic style which is not abstraction but the thing itself as a palpable dimension of experience.