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Art

Robert Williams

“ 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

Robert Williams (b. March 2, 1943) is a well-known controversial painter and founder of Juxtapoz Art & Culture Magazine.[1]

Williams began as part of the trail-blazing Zap Collective[2], 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.

Williams maintains that the movement should be referred to as 'cartoon-tainted abstract surrealism.'

Perhaps his most famous work, Appetite for Destruction, depicting interlocking levels of human-to-robot rape and brutality[4], 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[5] 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.[6][7]

Gadgets

The BBC iPlayer now has downloadable content for the Mac

Mac users have been able to view BBCs programs through streaming but has now launched the all important downloadable content facility using the Adobe Air platform.

Read more: BBC iPlayer now for Mac