Through Prehensile Eyes: Seeing the Art of Robert Williams by Robt. Williams

Through Prehensile Eyes: Seeing the Art of Robert Williams Reviews

• 
  Jeff Francis

  To go by three publications, Robert Williams’s evolution as an artist can be charted by “Visual Addiction,” “Views from a Tortured Libido,” and the later “Through Prehensile Eyes.”
  
  VA (with its f’ing maddening layout) showcased the themes that would make Williams a favorite of underground artists and rock stars. VFATL took things further, not the least the addition of the artist’s written explanations of the paintings. With this Williams took the graphic anarchy (nudes, violence, guilty foods, long-abandoned structures) of his early work and used the images in service of narratives, the most impressive of which were, IMO, his representations of history.
  
  It could be said, then, that with “Through Prehensile Eyes” Williams seems to have matured further, and maybe even mellowed out. The nudes seem toned down, replaced with an emphasis on puns and Escher-like optical illusions. Many of these more recent paintings also jettison the hyper-busy aesthetic of VA and VFATL.
  
  So even though “Through Prehensile Eyes” sees a more mellow Williams, does he still have it?
  
  I say yes. I found most of these paintings deeply appealing. Standouts included the one about the stamp collector and the ones about King Farouk and Piltdown Man. Also, while Williams has somewhat abandoned the jagged backgrounds of earlier paintings, I was tickled by his use of geo-ethnic bunting in this collection, e.g., the Mexican colors in his ode to the chupacabra, the dragons etc. in his portrayal of Mao’s China, and the fanciful Arabian architecture just barely glimpsed in the genie-in-a-bottle painting.