Jim McWilliams

Jim McWilliams (born February 10, 1937) is an American artist and graphic designer who was active as an avant-garde performer and composer during the 1960s and 1970s.

McWilliams has been active as a graphic designer and maker of artist's books since 1962. That year, at the age of twenty-five, he took over the typography studio at the Philadelphia College of Art, which had until then been run by Eugene Feldman, founder of Falcon Press. As head of the studio, McWilliams collaborated on experimental book projects with the artist Claire Van Vliet, the founder of Janus Press and one of his colleagues at the school. He also assisted the avant-garde Swiss artist Dieter Roth with his exhibition and book Snow, which Roth realized in 1964 while in residence at the College. In 2015, McWilliams's own books were part of an exhibition at Northwestern University Library, which holds McWilliams's archives. The exhibition included early works such as The N Book (1965), a typographical deconstruction of the letter "N," and later experiments such as Spiral Spiraling (1998), 600 pieces of die-cut paper that spiral around a metal rod.

As a teacher of art and design, McWilliams brought a new avant-garde sensibility to the college. According to art historian Sid Sachs, McWilliams "radicalized" the department through such tactics as opening his classes Experimental Workshops to all students, regardless of major or grade point average. In an effort to increase attendance, he strove for a less hierarchical, more relaxed atmosphere, installing a pinball machine in his office and inviting go-go dancers into the typography studio every Friday afternoon.

In 1964, McWilliams began a series of concerts at the school that gave students the opportunity to hear work by such contemporary musicians and performances as Korean composer Nam June Paik and his collaborator, cellist Charlotte Moorman; Japanese composer Takehisa Kosugi; German Happenings artist Wolf Vostell; the musician/composer team of La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela, and minimalist composer Terry Riley. The events were sometimes controversial. Paik and Moorman's concert was almost stopped when Moorman began a striptease as part of Paik's Pop Sonata. Riley's first-ever all-night concert, conceived by McWilliams and performed with Young and Zazeela on November 17–18, 1967, raised fears of litigation among school administrators. McWilliams's idea was that people could bring their families and sleeping bags and spend the night at the gallery, but because the school had never been open overnight before, administrators required him to personally carry liability insurance for the event.

...
Wikipedia