(A collection of 40 paintings by Williams that are morally...)
A collection of 40 paintings by Williams that are morally insolvent and grossly artistic. It covers his "Middle Years" and features the classic Two Bull Dykes Fighting For The Privilege Of Buying A Prostitute A Banana Daquiri.
(This collection of Williams's paintings has been a bestse...)
This collection of Williams's paintings has been a bestseller since its first publication in late 1989. It features 60 full colour paintings including Jezebel on a B.L.T., Empire Hanging By a Stretch Mark and many more.
(Collects 60 of Williams's paintings. Hot rods, monsters, ...)
Collects 60 of Williams's paintings. Hot rods, monsters, girls in bikinis and taco stands are among the prominent elements. The chromatic chaos disseminated by Williams in this multimedia book is about as masterful as it can get in the wood-pulp page-trade.
Through Prehensile Eyes: Seeing The Art Of Robert Williams
(From biker culture to the faux science of quantum mechani...)
From biker culture to the faux science of quantum mechanics, this collection features 58 new works by painter Robert Williams. 60 full-color reproductions.
(An all-new collection of paintings and sculpture by art l...)
An all-new collection of paintings and sculpture by art legend Robert Williams. First exhibited at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery in early 2015, the work in this oversized, hardcover exhibition catalog is accompanied by insightful essays by the artist.
Robert L. Williams II, often styled Robt. Williams, is an American painter, cartoonist, and founder of Juxtapoz Art & Culture Magazine.
Background
Mr. Williams was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States, on March 2, 1943. He is the son of Robert Wandell Williams and Betty Jane Spink. The Williams household was unstable, as his parents married each other a total of four times.
Education
Since early childhood, Robert Williams showed a huge interest in drawing and watercolor painting. To develop his talents, he entered the Stark Military Academy. In the year 1956 his parents separated and Robert Williams stayed with his mother in Albuquerque. He became a troublesome student and was expelled from the school while studying in the eleventh grade.
Trying to avoid the threat of imprisonment, Williams escaped to Los Angeles in 1963, when he was 20. In Los Angeles he attended art courses at Los Angeles City College. There he painted artworks for the school's paper, The Collegiate. Later he also attended the California Institute of the Arts (formerly known as the Chouinard Art Institute).
Mr. Williams' initially worked for Black Belt magazine, concurrently designing containers for the Weyerhaeuser Corporation. in 1965 he started to work with Ed "Big Daddy" Roth. At the end of the 1960s Williams became an oil painter. During that period he produced his "Super Cartoon" artworks, which included Appetite for Destruction (which depicts a robotic rapist about to be punished by a metal avenger) and In the Land of Retinal Delights. They were painted in the style of the old masters, and consequently were time-consuming to produce, sometimes taking more than a year.
In 1969 Ed Roth's studio was closed, and Robert Williams joined the Zap Comix collective of artists. Along with Robert Crumb, Gilbert Shelton, Rick Griffin, and Victor Moscoso, he became a part of the non-conformist, anti-establishment art movement. The same year Williams created his Coochy Cooty, a famous comix antihero. Many of Robert Williams' works were included in his first book, The Lowbrow Art of Robt. Williams. It was published by Rip Off Press in 1982.
In the 1980s, Mr. Williams became highly interested in the punk rock movement, which influenced his career. He published Zombie Mystery Paintings, which became an inspiration for a number of artists. Visual Addiction was Williams's next volume of paintings. In addition to Williams's books, he also frequently presented his works at avant-garde galleries, such as Billy Shire's La Luz de Jesus Gallery, 01 Gallery, and the Tamara Bane Gallery.
In 1994 Robert Williams founded Juxtapoz Art & Culture Magazine. The year 1997 witnessed Williams' publication of the retrospective Malicious Resplendence. That year he also had a solo show at the Shafrazi Gallery in New York. Two more Shafrazi shows were held in the years 2000 and 2003. The next solo exhibition, Conceptual Realism: In the Service of the Hypothetical, was organized at the same gallery in 2009. In 2010 this exhibition was also presented at California State University, Northridge.
In 2010 Williams participated at the Whitney Biennial, which was held at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. He also produced a documentaty film about himself under the title "Robert Williams, Mr. Bitchin". It was premiered on June 16, 2010, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
In 2011 Robert Williams joined the Los Angeles Art Fair. His paintings were also included in the show titled "Two Schools of Cool", which was held at the Orange County Museum of Art. Later he took part with other artists in "The Art Boys," along with such well-known people as Matt Groening, Gary Panter, The PIZZ, Neon Park, Mike Kelley and Mark Mothersbaugh.
Minotaure-On-High As Witnessed By His Antediluvian Retainers
Mirror Image with Varicose Eyeballs
The Chrysalis of Death
The Flotsam Dilettante and the Little Visitation That Only a Derelic Could Understand
In The Pavilion of The Red Clown
Art's Triumph over Substance
Psychic Pedestrians On a Spiral Horizon (Barycenter)
Runaway Imagination on the Back of a Wild Mare
The Girl with the Faberge Ass
The Appetite That Dare Not Be Appeased
Masterlink in the Pain Chain
Ranch of Disease
Santa Cruz Skateboards
Play on Words
The Four Seasons As Seen Through the Eyes of Jessica’s Sock Monkey
Timmy's Last Surprise
Putting The Genie Back in the Bottle
Hot Rod Race
Face Value
Plan your visit
Bastardizing Of The Autonomy Of “Person, Place And Thing”
A Life of Delusion
Expectorating In A Fast Food Patron’s Double Burger Deluxe
The Persuasion of Right Angles
The Waterhead who was Raised in a Box
Queen of Atlantis
Repository of All Lost Things
Zap Comix #8 Inside Front Cover Jam Page Original Art
Ozark Lasagna
Apathy-Sicle
Views
Quotations:
"I do not believe that my representation of females aids in their oppression. It is my artistic right to render the images of woman as my imagination sees fit. Remember, I will gladly accept the title "Bad Person" to continue my expression. In other words, nothing short of death will stop me from painting nekkid ladies..."
"My paintings are not designed to entertain you; they are meant to trap you, to hold you before them while you try to rationalize what elements of the picture are making you stand there."
"The art movement I go by is 'Colloquial' or 'Exploratory Realism' ... 'Feral Art'."
Interests
collecting German Pickelhauben, cars
Connections
Robert Williams met Suzanne Chorna, his future wife, while studying at Los Angeles City College. Later they married.