Notes from Steve “Sketch” Vallino:
Opening the evening will be Robert Williams: Slang Aesthetics by Steve “Sketch” Vallino, a fast-paced expose of the artist’s recent retrospective at Barnsdall Community Art Center in Los Angeles. This new short film includes narration by Williams himself and features highlights from the opening of this landmark show”
– JUXTAPOZ Magazine
Pablo Picasso said it best, “Sophistication is the greatest enemy of imagination.” Sophistication as our parents knew it is gone.
With the Internet, everything is changing so fast that slang and colloquialisms are as valid as the King’s English. In fact, slang represents freedom from pretension leaving artists to function as they please.
The Cartoon, a form of simple visual presentation, is the most versatile and malleable form of communication in the recorded vocabulary of Art. Yet the lowly cartoon, with its giant vernacular, is treated like a comic doodle.
With Art, the bottom will always come up to the top. The strongest creative urges are better expressed simply as “Slang Aesthetics.”
Here’s Wikipedia’s intro on Robert Williams:
Robert Williams (born March 2, 1943) is an American painter, cartoonist, and founder of Juxtapoz Art & Culture Magazine. Williams was one of the group of artists who produced Zap Comix, along with other underground cartoonists, such as Robert Crumb, S. Clay Wilson, and Gilbert Shelton. His mix of California car culture, cinematic apocalypticism, and film noir helped to create a new genre of psychedelic imagery.
Known collectors of his art include Nicolas Cage, Leonardo DiCaprio, Artie Shaw, Debbie Harry, Anthony Kiedis, Von Dutch, Stanislav Szukalski, Ed Ruscha, and Timothy Leary. He currently lives in the San Fernando Valley in California with his wife Suzanne, who is also a professional artist.
