Robert Williams: Conceptual Realism - In the Service of the Hypothetical Book
$24.99
The alternative art movement of the late 20th Century found its most congealing participant in one of America's most opprobrious and maligned underground artists, painter Robert Williams. It was Williams who brought the term "lowbrow" into the fine arts lexicon, with his groundbreaking 1979 book, The Lowbrow Art of Robt. Williams -- and from this point the seminal elements of West Coast Outlaw culture slowly started to aggregate.
Known as the "artist's artist," in early punk rock art shows held in after-hours clubs, Williams soon pioneered the first break-away art movement in California since the Eucalyptus School's estrangement from Impressionism in the late 1920s. His bold use of underground cartoon figuration, paired with harshly contrasted psychedelic colors, set a style that was an easily recognizable hallmark throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
Williams' 2009 series of paintings, on display in the Conceptual Realism catalog, take the viewer into the world of subjective theory -- a mock realm of violated graphic physics, and the next logical step into abstract thought. Essays accompany approximately 25 works, insights into the process behind each painting, photos of sculptures in progress, and other surprises. Introduction by Don Ed Hardy.
Softcover. 88 pages.
Pub. - Fantagraphics (2009)
