Robert Williams: Fearless Depictions is at the Long Beach Museum of Art through May 31
Sixty years after Robert Williams arrived in Southern California to study art and reinvent himself, the king of pop surrealism and high master of lowbrow art (descriptions the artist himself disdains) reigned over a hep happening at the Long Beach Museum of Art on Friday. The line of art lovers snaked around hot rods, decorated bicycles and the band Tijuana Panthers, with some waiting upwards of two hours to get inside.
Opening of Robert Williams: Fearless Depictions at the Long Beach Museum of ArtCredit: Photo by Chris Nichols
Hundreds of fans turned out for the 82-year-old artist’s new exhibition, Robert Williams: Fearless Depictions, with monster crowds swarming the collection of 57 paintings, 3-D miniatures, and even a 10-foot fiberglass sculpture of a bespectacled stamp collector towering over the lobby.
Some of Williams’ elaborate canvases take months to paint in his precise style that’s been compared to the Old Masters, and this new show is exclusively work created in the 21st century. Do that math.
Detail of Pathos in Papier-MâchéCredit: Painting by Robert Williams
The San Fernando Valley artist attended Chouinard art school near MacArthur Park (which later morphed into CalArts) and worked for artist and hot rod designer Ed “Big Daddy” Roth in the 1960s, drawing subversive designs that ended up on stickers and T-shirts. He was part of the first wave of underground comic books in the psychedelic era, helping launch ZAP Comix alongside artists including R. Crumb and Rick Griffin.
Detail of Bastardizing Of The Autonomy Of Person Place And ThingCredit: Painting by Robert Williams
“That background in demotic, countercultural imagery remains evident in his trippy paintings of crashing hot rods and miniskirted vixens in psychedelic landscapes,” the New York Times wrote in 2010. “He is an uncommonly inventive, albeit often puerile imagemaker.”
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Robert Williams Credit: Photo by Chris Nichols
Gallery owner Molly Barnes, whose own collection includes works by Marcel Duchamp, David Hockney and Ed Ruscha, told us at the opening that she was smitten with the underground artist. “I’m dedicated to his work,” Barnes said at the opening. “He has all the aphorisms of everything he’s loved and hated in his life.”
Art lover Charles Phoenix at Robert Williams: Fearless Depictions Credit: Photo by Chris Nichols
In 1994, Williams founded Juxtapoz, which would become one of the top -selling art magazines in the world. Contemporary artists like Josh Agle (AKA SHAG) would eventually grace the pages, but not at first. “Robert hated me and my art when I began attaining momentum and notoriety as a painter,” Agle posted on Instagram. “He found my art too nice, too pretty, and not at all transgressive. He would write editorials in the art magazine he had co-founded, decrying my bright colors and the lack of edginess in my themes.” Williams eventually came to appreciate Agle’s whimsical, boldly graphic style. “Maybe,” Agle says. “He realized that not every successful artist in the movement had to be transgressive and edgy.”
Fans outside of the Long Beach Museum of ArtCredit: Photo by Chris Nichols
Robert Williams: Fearless Depictions
Long Beach Museum of Art
Through May 31, 2026