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
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“Slave-Made Toys from Amiable Old Cathay”
(2015)
$1,700
Sold
Graphite on paper
14.25"
× 15.75"
36 × 40 cm
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“The Green Kachina”
(2015)
$10,000
Sold
Watercolor on paper
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“The Inside Out House”
(2015)
$10,000
Sold
Watercolor on paper
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“The Persuasion of Right Angles”
(2015)
$2,000
Sold
Graphite on paper
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“Tommy Tomato Horse Knife (A Forest Apparition)”
(2015)
$10,000
Sold
Watercolor on paper
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“Vicous Burger”
(2015)
$2,000
Sold
Conte and Graphite on paper
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“Assembled Sketch for ‘Saga Versus Saga’”
(2015)
$1,700
Sold
Graphite tape and collage on paper
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“Astrophysically Modified Real Estate”
(2015)
$10,000
Sold
Watercolor on paper
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“Beyond Ferocious”
(2015)
$10,000
Sold
Watercolor on paper
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“Coochy Cooty Model Sheet”
(2015)
$2,000
Sold
Conte crayon on paper
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“Mr. Exponential Psychosis (Piss Pot Pete)”
(2015)
$10,000
Sold
Watercolor on paper
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“Sketch for ‘A Perplexity Searching for an Enigma Through the Maze of an Ambiguity’ I”
(2015)
$1,700
Sold
Graphite on tissue paper
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“Sketch for ‘Avatar of Inequity’”
(2015)
$1,700
Sold
Graphite on paper
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“Sketch for ‘The Ball Peen Hammer Expressionist’”
(2015)
$1,700
Sold
Graphite on tissue paper
15.75"
× 14.25"
40 × 36 cm
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“Sketch for ‘The De-Emphasized Universe’”
(2015)
$1,700
Sold
Graphite on paper
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“Sketch for ‘The Shrinking Perimeters of Utopia’”
(2015)
$1,700
Sold
Grease pencil and graphite on paper
18.25"
× 15.5"
46 × 39 cm