Lyneise Williams
Associate Professor of Art
Hanes Art Center 205
(919) 962-0737
williale@email.unc.edu
Lyneise Williams is an Associate Professor of Art History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (PhD Yale 2004). She is the author of Black AND Latin: Representations of Black Latin Americans in Paris, 1855-1933, (forthcoming from Ashgate), which examines Parisians’ visual iconography of Latin Americans in popular imagery beginning in the mid-nineteenth century and into the early twentieth century. Three case studies, which focus on the imagery of Cuban circus entertainer, Chocolat, Panamanian World Bantamweight Champion Alfonso Teofilo Brown, and Black Uruguayans by Uruguayan painter, Pedro Figari, argue for a nuanced ccm1_028138reconsideration of blackness in early twentieth century Paris. Her second book project explores the intersection of male beauty, masculinity, sports, and the black male body chiefly through the images and performances of Alfonso Brown in 1920s and 30s Paris. She has published articles on the paintings of Uruguayan artist Pedro Figari, the depictions of boxer Alfonso Teofilo Brown, as well as on African art and hip-hop jewelry. Beyond the African Diaspora, she has taught courses in ccm1_028140museology and worked extensively in museums and galleries as a curator, preparator, and educator. Several exhibitions she curated dealt with both sides of the Black Atlantic, exploring ideas such as appropriation, “authenticity,” commodification, and redefinition. Williams has considerable public art experience and is a member of a team of artists selected through an international competition to design and create the North Carolina Freedom Monument in Raleigh, North Carolina.
