Footage fresh from the Archives: 1991 Robert Williams TV interview by Bram Van Splunteren. Duration: 20 minutes. Never aired in the US. In a 2016 re-edit by Bram to get rid of some Dutch titles. Lowbrow artist Robert Williams talks about his work, and also drives his 1934 Ford Tudor hotrod. Topics such as the suicide doors of his '34 Ford, his '32 Ford Roadster, Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, LSD, his "Appetite for Destruction" painting that was on the cover of the first Guns N’ Roses album, and caused great controversy, Salvatore Dali’s use of 'amber varnish' & the '90's New York art scene. A 1991 film by Bram van Splunteren for VPRO Dutch Public Television, in a 2016 re-edit.
Thanks Ger, thanks for posting. Some interesting quips there. Plenty to discuss. One thing we can take from this, is just how numerous and different approaches to art can be. Example; Six months on a painting? I'd love to see these Williams 'amber' pieces. My last 5 or so years has been spent on 1 to 3, maybe 5 hour paintings. Kinda live responses to subject, with a totally different nature to William's approach.
Yeah - the "amber" pieces - I guess you'd need to see them in person to see the "trapped light" effect as that could never be faithfully reproduced in a paper print or in a photograph. Much like a deep metal flake paint job on a custom car, I imagine. Love your 4 hour paintings Spoggie!
Thanks for posting that, cool interview. Hadn't seen that one. Robert Williams is the bomb, as much as I love Ed Roth and Von Dutch for creating the whole low brow art scene, Williams is a phenomenal illustrator and painter that transcends all of it. He's more from of the psychedelic 60's scene, but is a hot rodder at heart so he bleeds into low brow. He also just lives in a normal house in a normal neighborhood, has a normal wife and is at heart a hard working blue collar guy (he paints for 12 hours a day). In the entertainment industry I've seen so many celebrities that were freaks, it's completely refreshing. When I was a painter in art college in the 1980's R. Crumb, Roth and Williams were it for me. I'm sure guys like Coop and others felt the same, when I saw Coop's stuff at the Jesus gallery in LA in the 90's I knew someone had finally gotten it, and was going to make it big. He's also a hot rodder. There's a recent full length documentary about Williams called "Mr Bitchin' ", if anyone wants more. He talks a lot about Roth and has some really interesting stories about the 60's, (Roth was worried about William's long hair and dented up jalopy pissing off the greasers in his shop. ) Great movie, definitely check it out. Williams also founded Juxtapoz Magazine, which is the best thing that ever happened to real working artists.
When I graduated from art school, I moved to Los Angeles and was lucky enough to work on shows like Beavis and Butthead, and the ultimate culmination of Lowbrow art: Ren and Stimpy!
Thanks for your input Daniel. Reason you never saw this interview would be that the footage has only been collecting dust in the Dutch Public Television Archives for the last 25 years. I recently retrieved the footage, had it digitized and reached out to the original film maker who did a re-edit and posted it to the internet for the first time.
Great video! Interesting to see Death On The Boards unfinished in this one. I had the opportunity to see the finished piece up close once and it was impressive as hell!
Did ya ever work for Film Roman? That Kricfalusi feller, he’s one nutty guy. I was pulling for his proposed reboot of Yogi Bear... That was produced around the time I strarted on Futurama. ( while we’re name dropping. ) Thanks for posting this Ger. I will be sure to watch it tomorrow. Right now, I am in storyboarding hell. Great to see you and Ruben back in action on the FAS. I missed the past few weeks and they look like they were barn burners... I’ll check them out tomorrow as well.
Some college friends got me a job at Metrocell (part of Metrolight Studios). We digitally scanned and painted all of the paper cells and painted backgrounds for Ren and Stimpy, Beavis and Butthead. I tried to get into Spumpco and also with Ralph Bakshi, but I wasn't quite good enough. I did get into Disney for awhile, and Duck Soup. I am too bitter to do well in a corporate environment, so my friend and I used Metro light and Disney's equipment (after hours) to make two shorts for Mike and Spike's Sick and Twisted Animation Festival, one was called "Poetic Jaundice", the other "Bearded Clam". I convinced Dave and Deke and Chuck E Wise to let use use some songs. Good times. Turns out I'm better at building things, so I spent a bunch more years out there building sets and props. I owned a house in Echo Park when no one else wanted to. Left in 2001. I remember LA in the 90's when you still could buy sweet rides for short $. I bought a 57 Ranchero for $600 and drove it for years. I got a Rambler for $175 when the owner got too old and his family took it away. Wish I still had those rides. This lost Robert Williams interview is killer Do you work at Film Roman? Cool gig.
Yeah - this interview sure had a major impact on me when I stumbled upon it on TV 25 years ago. Thought it would be worthwhile to give it a shot and "save" the footage - even with the Mr. Bitchin' DVD out there; I'm sure some future hot rod artist or animation artist will see it and draw inspiration. Thanks for the great animation work Mark and Daniel! The Ren and Stimpy Show stood out for me.
...There's a mention of Coop on here. Here's a cool vid I go to for inspiration. He mentions meeting Williams: I like that he shares some of his past sketches, drawings, and overlays out of his architect drawer. At work, we have the same type of drawer, except it is used to store window parts. Someday, I need to steal it to store my art shit.
Very cool beebing. Thanks for posting that. I remember Coop chiming in on the HAMB frequently back when I was more active.
I love his work. He use to come to the primer nats. In Ventura and sell his work. I asked him to sign this one with my nickname my wife gave me.
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