Robert Williams (artist)

Infobox Artist


name = Robert Williams
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birthname = Robert Williams
birthdate =March 2,1943
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nationality = American
field = Oil on Canvas Art
training = Chouinard Art Institute
movement = Lowbrow / Pop Surreal
works = Appetite for Destruction
patrons =
influenced by = Kustom Kulture
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Robert Williams is a well-known controversial painter and founder of "Juxtapoz Art & Culture Magazine". [ipedia article on Robert Williams [http://fav.ipedia.com/robert_williams__artist_.html] ]

Williams began as part of the trail-blazing Zap Collective [Lowbrow Artworld [http://www.lowbrowartworld.com/robert_williams.html] ] , along with other underground cartoonist visionaries like Robert Crumb and Gilbert Shelton. His mix of California car culture, cinematic apocalypticism, and film noir helped to create a new genre of psychedelic imagery along with artists like "Big Daddy" Ed Roth.

Williams' formal training in the arts began at Los Angeles City College and culminated at Chouinard Art Institute. Of the moniker "Lowbrow" Williams steadfastly denies that the term was ever meant to define the movement, but was merely used in the title of his first collection. "There was never any intention to make the title of my book the name of a fledging art movement but, over time, that seems to be what has transpired." - Robt Wms [Bien Art article on Robert Williams [http://beinart.org/info/essays/robert-williams.php] ] . Williams maintains that the movement should be referred to as 'cartoon-tainted abstract surrealism.'

Perhaps his most famous work, "Appetite for Destruction" [Answers dot Com on Appetite for Destruction (controversy) [http://www.answers.com/topic/appetite-for-destruction] ] , depicting interlocking levels of human-to-robot rape and brutality, was featured as the cover for the Guns N' Roses album of the same name, before controversy forced record company Geffen Records to move it to the inside cover.

Williams began the magazine "Juxtapoz [Seattle PI [http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/visualart/246813_robertwilliams.html] ] " in 1994. It has propelled to fame many artists with Williams' same taste for Americanized figurative nightmares and the blending of pin-up, religious and kitsch culture. Among such artists is Mark Ryden.

He is a featured interviewee in the movie Independents.

In 2007, Vans released sneakers designed by Robert Williams as part of the Vans Vault series. [Vans Vault Series '07 - Robert Williams [http://www.hypebeast.com/2007/05/vans-vault-series-07-robert-williams] ] [Vans Vault by Robert Williams [http://deadlicious.blogspot.com/2007/06/vans-vault-by-robert-williams.html] ]

Bibliography

* "The Lowbrow Art of Robert Williams", Last Gasp
* "Views From a Tortured Libido", Last Gasp
* "Visual Addiction" (out of print), Last Gasp
* "Zombie Mystery Paintings", Last Gasp
* "Malicious Resplendence", Fantagraphics
* "Hysteria in Remission", Fantagraphics
* "Through Prehensile Eyes", Last Gasp
* "The Hot Rod World Of Robt Williams", Motorbooks

ee also

* Lowbrow (art movement)
* Rat rod

References

External links

* [http://www.robtwilliamsstudio.com/ OFFICIAL Robert Williams website]
* [http://beinart.org/artists/robert-williams/ Online Showcase of Robert Williams' Art]
* [http://supervert.com/essays/art/robert_williams Robert Williams' Car Crashes on Canvas (essay)]