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LINES ON PAPER Artist Bio - Robert Williams
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Hysteria In Remission:Comix and Drawings by Robert Williams
Legendary imagist painter Robert Williams sprang from the custom car culture of Southern California and the roots of the Underground Comix movement. Though known today as one of the world's most iconoclastic fine artists, Williams was also, of course, first and foremost a cartoonist. As a member of the legendary ZAP collective, along with R. Crumb, Williams eventually transcended the world of comics by cultivating his mastery of oil paints and forging a career as the preeminent artist among a generation of imagist painters gathering inspiration from the shadowed corners of contemporary culture. Williams singlehandedly became the model of the "Outsider" art movement, influencing a generation of artists to create without concern for the fine art world, held in contempt by Williams (a feeling which had been reciprocated in kind for years by the established fine art community, although Williams' sheer mastery of his craft has caused a grudging retreat - Williams paintings now command tens of thousands of dollars each in the gallery scene and the artist has a long waiting list of potential buyers). Now, for the first time, all of Williams' seminal comic strips - many of which have been out of print for over 25 years - have been collected into one place. Coochy Cooty Men's Comics, Felch, Snatch, Yama Yama, Zam, Zap and everything in between are included, all under one cover. Hysteria In Remission also features: 30 pages of Williams' outrageous advertising art for Roth Studios; dozens of never-before-collected examples from the early-'60s of the young illustrator's earliest professional work; full-color storyboards for a proposed Zap animated film from 1970; unpublished gems from the artist's files; and much more, spanning 40 years and featuring annotations by Williams and an introduction by fellow Zap cartoonist Gilbert Shelton. more info> 288 pages . 32 pages in full-color |
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A painting student first at Los Angeles City College and later at the Chouinard Art Institute, Williams got his first break when he became the art director for legendary hot rod hero Ed "Big Daddy" Roth. With the rise of the counterculture in the late 1960's. Williams found a growing audience in the underground comic milieu that nurtured such figures as Robert Crumb, Victor Moscoso and S. Clay Wilson.
One of the originators of Zap Comix, Williams continues tradition of no-holds barred creative exploration. In 1994 Williams founded Juxtapoz magazine with a group of artists and collectors. The publication's mission statement was to present art that is provocative, technically adept and worthy of exposure. William's work has been presented internationally on album covers and posters and in magazines and exhibitions, including the important Helter Skelter: L.A. Art in the 1990s at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles in 1992 and the 1993 exhibition Kustom Kulture at the Laguna Art Museum. Williams has produced a number of publications such as Malicious Resplendence, Zombie Mystery Painting, Visual Addiction and Views from a Tortured Libido. <-- Back to Artist's Card |
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