ROBERT WILLIAMS: Hot Rods and High Heels Lead to High Art.
The Long Beach Museum celebrates him in 2026 and I look back to 1992 and the first New York one man show of the painter "befouling the art world since 1957."
PHOTOGRAPHY: VIQUI MAGGIO
(1992) It’s the opening of his solo exhibition at the Bess Cutler Gallery in Soho, and Robert Williams is the king of prestigious West Broadway.
“As recent as two years ago, no one would give me a show here, even though I promised them it would be a sell-out,” he tells me.
Williams’ work has been criticized as: sexist (he likes to paint women in high heels and garters, particularly the dorsal view): violent (his social commentary sometimes involves humans exploding): or just plain not serious (the influences of Dali and Manet in his work bow to those of comic books and hotrods).
“How do you feel now?” I ask, knowing that true to his word every one of the show’s 30 oil paintings has sold, at prices from $7000 - $50,000, most before they were hung.
“Well, let’s say I’m not shedding any tears, “
The gallery is packed for the opening. Among the notables: Debbie Harry and Chris Stein, Iggy Pop, cartoonists Leslie Sternbergh and Ned Sontag, sex mag editrix Dian Hansen, lensman Eric Kroll, Axel, sculptor of strange jewelry, author Larry “Ratso” Sloman, swingers Valerie and wife Ruth, fantasy facilitators, tattooists and human canvases, I brought along my personal French maid, Jennifer, prize student at Miss Vera’s Finishing School For Boys Who Want To Be Girls. We were all there to celebrate the success of an artist who has consistently gone against the establishment—or, as he states on his business card, “Fouling The Art World’s Nest Since 1957. “ With this show, he’s hit a home run.
