![Untitled (woman with cinderblocks) Portrait painting of a woman](https://fineartconnoisseur.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Untitled-woman-with-cinderblocks-696x887.jpg)
“Reinventing Narrative Painting” is the first major retrospective of Manning Williams’s work since his death in 2012. View it at the Gibbes Museum of Art (Charleston, South Carolina) through April 18, 2021.
![Manning Williams in art studio](https://fineartconnoisseur.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Manning-Williams-artist-MW010-1024x677.jpg)
Williams’s paintings are rooted in the history, traditions, and terrain of the South Carolina Lowcountry. A Charleston native and lifelong resident, Williams earned degrees from the College of Charleston and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.
His highly personal approach to realist painting emphasized storytelling and was fueled by an interest in portraying subjects that he found on the periphery of the city and along the barrier islands.
![Painting of a woman walking](https://fineartconnoisseur.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Manning-Williams-woman-walking-755x1024.jpg)
Western subjects also commanded Williams’s attention, and during the later years of his career, his concern with narrative was expressed in a more abstract style.
![Acrylic and charcoal painting of men hunting](https://fineartconnoisseur.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Manning-Williams-Sunday-in-the-Marsh-1024x698.jpg)
![“Rice Fields, 1985-86,” by Manning Williams](https://fineartconnoisseur.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Manning-Williams-Rice-Fields-1024x509.jpg)
“Reinventing Narrative Painting” features 30 paintings from Williams’s prolific career that spanned more than 40 years.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a book published by Evening Post Publishing and will travel to the Morris Museum of Art in Augusta, GA.
![“Oyster Roast,” 1985-86, by Manning Williams](https://fineartconnoisseur.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Manning-Williams-Oyster-Roast-1024x509.jpg)
For more information, visit www.gibbesmuseum.org.
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