Olmec colossal heads by Matthew Stirling in 1938 spurred the first archaeological investigations of Olmec culture. Seventeen confirmed examples are known from four sites within the Olmec heartland on the Gulf Coast of Mexico. Most colossal heads were sculpted from spherical boulders but two from San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán were re-carved from massive stone thrones. An additional monument, at Takalik Abaj in Guatemala, is a throne that may have been carved from a colossal head. This is the only known example from outside the Olmec heartland. Dating the monuments remains difficult because of the movement of many from their original contexts prior to archaeological
The Olmec-Maya and Now maintaining bases in the United Kingdom and Jamaica. He was working towards the completion of another large series of paintings, "Shostakovich" (1969-1981), which was exhibited for the first time in October of that year. The paintings in "The Olmec-Maya and Now" combine abstract expressionism with figurative depictions of Olmec and Maya icons, symbols and artefacts. Williams' re-introduction of figurative elements into his paintings marked an important stylistic departure from his earlier work, such as the "Shostakovich" series, which was entirely abstract. Art critics Mel Gooding, Reyahn King and Leon Wainwright have noted that the fusion of abstraction and figuration challenged