Robert Williams On Tour

SLANG AESTHETICS! AT THE MESA CONTEMPORARY ARTS MUSEUM

IT SEEMS APPROPRIATE THAT JUXTAPOZ FOUNDER and self-described “Conceptual Realist” painter Robert Williams has seen his retrospective, SLANG Aesthetics!, crisscross the United States in recent years. Stemming from roots in New Mexico and Alabama, as well as his later immersion in the West Coast, “the new cultural frontier,” as described by Walter Hopps, Williams draws from a scintillating color palette to add two glorious allegories for his travelling show, fresh from the heartland. It’s a pleasure to introduce Sequential Dissension and The Veil of Paternity, accompanied by Robert’s nuanced narrative.

Sequential Dissension 

Robert Williams: Conflict is not the intended subject of this picture—it’s the painting’s use of conflict. In most paintings, placid and modestly arranged compositional elements suggest a peaceful, static pose. Not quite stagnant, but simple and thoughtfully staged as if everything exists comprehensively for the mature, no-nonsense observer. However, what is often lacking in a realistically rendered artwork is visual interchange.

Within this work, pastoral solace is substituted with reciprocation, something like involuntary participation. Three things best express interplay and social movement in art: one, violence; two, sexual activity; and three, joyous friendly cohesion.