Robert Williams

Country United States

Robert Williams’ epic cartoon-inspired history paintings draw from American vernacular and its visual slang. Relying on concrete, relatable, and often absurd imagery to invoke social commentary, Williams work continues to confront and confound. In the 1960s, Williams began creating work that channeled the shifting energies and immediacy of counterculture. His paintings rejected the prevailing dominance of conceptual minimalism, focusing instead on a return to craftsmanship, figuration and popular imagery. In 1979, Williams coined the term “low brow” as a way to articulate his opposition to an establishment “high” art world from which he was excluded. For better or worse, “low brow” became the namesake of the fledgling New Contemporary movement, which Williams was instrumental in fostering.

Williams grew up immersed in California’s hot rod Kustom Kulture, Rock n’ Roll and EC Comics, and was steeped in the populist currents of his era. He worked commercially and became studio Art Director to Kustom Kulture icon Ed “big daddy” Roth in 1965, and was a founding contributor to the underground ZAP Comix in the late 60s, all the while creating his own caustic, unapologetic work. In 1994 Williams founded Juxtapoz Art & Culture Magazine, a publication dedicated to the underground, which has become the top-selling art magazine worldwide.

Current and Previous Works by Robert Williams

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  • “Sketch for ‘The-Appetited That Dare Not Be Appeased’”

    (2015)
    $1,700
    Sold
    Graphite on paper
    16.5" × 13"
    42 × 33 cm
  • “Slave-Made Toys from Amiable Old Cathay”

    (2015)
    $1,700
    Sold
    Graphite on paper
    14.25" × 15.75"
    36 × 40 cm
  • “The Green Kachina”

    (2015)
    $10,000
    Sold
    Watercolor on paper
    17.5" × 14.5"
    44 × 37 cm
  • “The Inside Out House”

    (2015)
    $10,000
    Sold
    Watercolor on paper
    17.5" × 14.5"
    44 × 37 cm
  • “The Persuasion of Right Angles”

    (2015)
    $2,000
    Sold
    Graphite on paper
    18" × 19"
    46 × 48 cm
  • “Tommy Tomato Horse Knife (A Forest Apparition)”

    (2015)
    $10,000
    Sold
    Watercolor on paper
    17.5" × 14.5"
    44 × 37 cm
  • “Vicous Burger”

    (2015)
    $2,000
    Sold
    Conte and Graphite on paper
    19" × 24"
    48 × 61 cm
  • “Assembled Sketch for ‘Saga Versus Saga’”

    (2015)
    $1,700
    Sold
    Graphite tape and collage on paper
    9" × 11"
    23 × 28 cm
  • “Astrophysically Modified Real Estate”

    (2015)
    $10,000
    Sold
    Watercolor on paper
    17.5" × 14.5"
    44 × 37 cm
  • “Beyond Ferocious”

    (2015)
    $10,000
    Sold
    Watercolor on paper
    17.5" × 14.5"
    44 × 37 cm
  • “Coochy Cooty Model Sheet”

    (2015)
    $2,000
    Sold
    Conte crayon on paper
    18" × 10.5"
    46 × 27 cm
  • “Mr. Exponential Psychosis (Piss Pot Pete)”

    (2015)
    $10,000
    Sold
    Watercolor on paper
    17.5" × 14.5"
    44 × 37 cm
  • “Sketch for ‘A Perplexity Searching for an Enigma Through the Maze of an Ambiguity’ I”

    (2015)
    $1,700
    Sold
    Graphite on tissue paper
    9.5" × 11"
    24 × 28 cm
  • “Sketch for ‘Avatar of Inequity’”

    (2015)
    $1,700
    Sold
    Graphite on paper
    11.5" × 9.75"
    29 × 25 cm
  • “Sketch for ‘The Ball Peen Hammer Expressionist’”

    (2015)
    $1,700
    Sold
    Graphite on tissue paper
    15.75" × 14.25"
    40 × 36 cm
  • “Sketch for ‘The De-Emphasized Universe’”

    (2015)
    $1,700
    Sold
    Graphite on paper
    9.5" × 8.5"
    24 × 22 cm
  • “Sketch for ‘The Shrinking Perimeters of Utopia’”

    (2015)
    $1,700
    Sold
    Grease pencil and graphite on paper
    18.25" × 15.5"
    46 × 39 cm