Robert Williams is an American painter, underground cartoonist and creator and editor in chief of Juxtapoz magazine. He helped create what is now known as the low brow art scene, also known as pop surrealism, in the late 1970s. Williams was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico on March 2, 1943. He took classes at the Los Angeles City College school and moved on to a brief stint at The Chouinard Art Institute where he was referred to as an illustrator by his peers, which was meant as an insult. Williams landed his dream job in 1965 working for Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, a custom hot-rod builder and artist who created the hot-rod icon Rat Fink. Williams created advertisements and graphics for Roth while working on his own art on the side in the form of oil paintings. Themes in Williams' work consist of hot-rod and underground comic counter culture. After working for Roth, he joined the ZAP Comix collective of artists and helped create what is now known as the low brow/pop surrealist movement along with other artists such as Robert Crumb, S. Clay Wilson, Rick Griffin, Gilbert Shelton, Spain Rodriguez and Victor Moscoso. After spending the better part of the late 70s and 80s creating a name for himself via gallery showings and publishing books of his work, which were all celebrated in the underground art and punk rock scene, he created Juxtapoz magazine in 1994. Juxtapoz is now one of the highest circulated art magazines and has launched several artists careers, such as Mark Ryden and Shepard Fairey.
My first impression of Soth was that I found him to be humorous. I could see this reflected in some of the work he showed us. I thoroughly enjoyed the fact that he uses an 8x10 large format view camera, which was clearly evident in his work. I thought he brought up some great points that I hadn't considered before, such as (and I'm paraphrasing here):
*"What does it mean to be a photographer and photograph democratically when there are so many photos in existence, e.g. Flickr and Facebook?"
*"What does a photojournalist contribute when they go to Hati? When they'd just be using up more water and taking up space, getting in the way?"
*"Problem with photographic storytelling is that each photo is a fragment. Works only if the viewer connects the dots to come up with the story themselves."
As the lecture went on and he described how drastically many of his projects would change while working on them, I began to feel as though he doesn't have a good grip on his concepts. I agree that artists should follow their instinct but I felt that some of his projects, such as Niagara, lost its common thread. The work seemed too scrambled and all over the place to be considered one body of work.
I also didn't appreciate his stories about trying to track down a woman he came come across in New Zealand and Georgia and his unannounced visit to Eggleston's home. Those stories painted him in a bad light in my eyes and made him come across as rude and creepy.
Thomas Kinkade is an American painter who was born on January 19, 1958 and raised in Placerville, California. He attended the University of California in Berkley and after two years transferred to the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. Kinkade is the epitome of kitsch art, with his sentimental subject matter depicting unspoiled and nostalgic landscapes, as well as Disney characters and scenes of American sport games. He is best known for mass producing his art work on a grand scale and reproducing his paintings as prints and creating replicas of his paintings on other licensed products, such as calendars, tea cups and even porcelain crucifixs. He is incredibly market and business savvy and the fact that between the period of 1997 and 2005 Kinkade made $53 million dollars is proof of this. He is known as the most collected living artist who has sold more paintings than Picasso, Rembrandt, Gaughin, Monet, Manet, Renoir and Van Gogh combined. Being a devout Christian, Kinkade's work reflects his good-natured upbringing as it is highly sentimental and optimistic. Most of his paintings depict his conservative views on "the small American town," but without the use of people. With the exception of a small collection of Disney themed paintings, most of his work consists merely of landscapes. While he has obvious technical skill as a painter, his work lacks depth in the way of concept. Because of this and the fact that his work is mass produced and sold in Thomas Kinkade franchise galleries across the country, as well as on his official website and even on the QVC home shopping channel, he is deemed as a kitsch artist. Some have referred to his work as "chocolate box art."
Riding a Dead Horse in a Dream Within a Dream, oil on canvas,
The Girl with the Faberge Ass, oil on canvas, year unknown,
The Ball Peen Hammer Expressionist, oil on canvas, year unknown,
Backstage Johnny Expresses His Darker Urges
