A book coauthored by two of LSU’s art faculty members was ranked No. 1 under the surrealist literary criticism category of Amazon.com’s new releases last week.
The book profiles Robert Williams, a painter and cartoonist, who has been labeled by critics as the epitome of “Lowbrow,” a genre of art which he’s credited with in-part establishing. The book is called “Robert Williams: Conversations”.
Likely Williams’ most recognizable work is the painting “Appetite for Destruction” which was adopted by Guns N’ Roses as the original art of the album featuring the same name. The album’s art was deemed controversial by many retailers, so the original cover by Williams was eventually censored.
Lowbrow artist Robert Williams sold his painting, “Appetite for Destruction” for around $200 to Guns N’ Roses, who weren’t known at the time, art history professor Darius Spieth said. William’s original art was deemed too controversial, so the album’s art was eventually censored. A black-and-white picture of William’s painting is featured in the book Spieth coauthored.
Williams contributed to the counterculture Zap Comix and is a founder of Juxtapoz Art & Culture Magazine, which propelled both the genre of Lowbrow and careers of many of its aspiring artists.
Lowbrow art, sometimes called pop surrealism, originated in the ‘60s, drawing heavily on punk rock, the underground comic scene, surrealism, graffiti and hot-rod street culture.
Beyond just being about Williams or his art, author and art history professor Darius Spieth said, the book is also “a very rare and lucid attempt to clarify the relationship between graphic art/comics and contemporary art.”
Spieth said he first discovered Williams’ art when he was a graduate student in the mid-’90s, prior to the internet going mainstream. Then, Spieth said, new art was predominantly circulated through magazines, and Juxtapoz stood out from the rest.
“Conceptualism, minimalism and performance art were still going strong and what you saw in those magazines looked like art that was put together by a bunch of really boring corporate lawyers,” Spieth said. “Everything was very black-and-white, very serious, very dull. Juxtapoz was truly different: colorful, vibrant, rebellious, steeped in youth culture and things such as surfing, skating, comics, graffiti, street art, and tattoos.”
“Evaporation of the Subconscious” by Lowbrow artist Robert Williams is featured in black-and-white in the book coauthored by LSU art faculty Darius Spieth and Joe Givens.
The items featured in Juxtapoz weren’t touched by mainstream “Highbrow.” It was refreshing, he said, to see a return-to-form of figurative art and Surrealism’s legacy revisited. Years later, Spieth would have the opportunity to visit him while teaching at the California Institute of Technology for a year. By then, he said, he had a pronounced appreciation for Lowbrow.
Spieth said he first had the opportunity after a friend, painter Sandow Birk, introduced him with Greg Escalante, who The New York Times described as a pioneer and champion of the Lowbrow scene.
Escalante, Spieth said, liked connecting people, so he coordinated Spieth to meet Williams and his wife at a favorite restaurant of Arnold Schwarzenegger. They collectively ran the tab to something around $1,500 and Escalante single-handedly covered it.
Since then, Spieth and Williams have regularly stayed in touch with phone calls and in-person meetings, Spieth said.
The book’s other author is Joe Givens, another faculty member at the College of Art and Design who leads a program specializing in overlooked and underappreciated art movements. His and Spieth’s interests in Lowbrow and an edited volume of interviews with Williams intersected, so they jointly proposed the book to a publisher.
Lowbrow artist Robert Williams stands second to the left, art history professor Darius Spieth stands third to the right and art faculty Joe Givens stands on the far right.
Compiling the interview that make up the book was surprisingly difficult, Givens said.
“I had a great time trying to find the content that contributed to the knowledge of art yet would be so far beyond what a typical art historian would select.” Givens said. “The problem with some of these interviews is that in the realm of fly-by-night journalism and underground zines, the 1990s is ancient history.”
Included in the book is an interview Williams had with actor Nicholas Cage and another with art curator Jeffrey Deitch. Spieth said he and Givens were able to “sneak in” an interview with Escalante as the book’s appendix. Spieth said he was proud to include the Escalante interview in the book almost as a tribute to him. He said Escalante committed suicide in 2017.
Givens said more than anything, Williams’ work has challenged the elitism that he said constrains visual art’s “legitimate spaces.” But his work still features much of the technical sophistication of classical painters, Spieth said. It’s subtle, and the imagery a little distracting to this point, but Williams can’t be faulted for perspective, proportions or anatomy.
Williams has visited Baton Rouge twice. He had run-ins with Hell’s Angels early in his career. Some sellers of magazines featuring his comics were arrested for having sold them, Givens said. He was the first painter to be given a cover on Thrasher Magazine. When the Museum of Contemporary Art launched the first major exhibition of graffiti, Art in the Streets, Williams was awarded a special plaque for his contributions. Not only is he one of the greatest artists of the 20th Century, Givens said, he is also one of the greatest troublemakers.
Williams has visited Baton Rouge twice, Spieth said, both visits a few years ago.
“This wave of psychedelia [Lowbrow] washed over culture affecting everything from interior design to Saturday Morning Cartoons, yet the museums were virtually unphased.” Givens said. “When you read his reflections, you learn that Williams never gave up on the idea that imaginative, lurid visuals would have their return to museum walls. It took nearly 30 years for him to realize a modest version of his dream.”