The Hot Rod World of Robert Williams - Hardcover

Williams, Robert; Lavella, Mike

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0760326606 ISBN 13: 9780760326602

Publisher: Motorbooks Intl, 2006

Synopsis

Robert Williams' life and work have proven difficult to describe. Who better then, to put Williams into words and pictures than the man himself-as he does in this illustrated autobiography of his life in hot rods. Here, for the first time, Robert Williams presents his extraordinary body of work in the context of his hot rod background, in the process relating his impossibly wild formative years and his gradual establishment as one of America's most influential underground artists. Born in 1943 and raised in Alabama and Albuquerque, Williams eventually gravitated to Southern California and the Chouinard Art Institute, but not before immersing himself in the country’s nascent youth culture of hot rods, rock ’n’ roll, and bowling alley rumbles. He recounts a boyhood spent in drive-in theaters and dirt tracks, honing a life and a style that had little to do with the world of square day jobs he entered after leaving Chouinard in 1963, when, through sheer happenstance, an unemployment agency handed him a job as art director at the studio of his hero, Ed ""Big Daddy"" Roth. Along with tales from his time at Roth studios?which resulted in his famous Roth ads for Hot Rod magazine, not to mention several infamous run-ins with the Hell’s Angels?Williams demythologizes the 1950s, recalls his association with Zap Comix and R. Crumb, and reflects on today’s retro rodders and his own hot rods. Illustrated throughout with photographs from Williams’ personal collection as well as paintings and illustrations, this is a life portrait as only Robert Williams could do it.

About this title

About the Author

Among hot rod enthusiasts and admirers of so-called “outsider” art, Robert Williams needs no introduction. The founder of both the American lowbrow art movement and Juxtapoz magazine, as well as a part-owner of Zap Comix, Williams is also a long-time hot rodder who came of age in the 1950s, when the hot rod and youth movements were still on unsure footing. He became a key figure at the studio of Ed Roth in the 1960s before moving on to a renowned career as a fine artist. His byline appears on several book volumes of his work. Mr. Williams lives in Chatsworth, California, with his wife, Suzanne, also a distinguished artist.

 

Mike LaVella began his writing career in 1988 with the legendary punk rock rag Maximum Rocknroll. In 1993 he combined his early loves of muscle cars, drag racing, rock, and pop culture by founding Gearhead magazine (gearheadmagazine.com), and in 2000 he co-founded Gearhead Records. A native of Herminie, Pennsylvania, he now resides in Oakland, California.

 

From the Back Cover

Robert Williams can do the work of five men.
Ed Big Daddy Roth

Robert Williams life reads like a full-color Johnson Smith Company catalog of every fascinating facet of lowbrow/underground/hot rod/rock & roll culture that has mostly remained hidden in darkness beneath the flat rock of decent American society.
Hot Rods, Motorsickles, Carnies, Juvenile Delinquents, Bikers, Hippies, and Punks, Bob has spent a lifetime simmering waist-deep in a spicy gumbo of gonzo weirdness, and now he s serving up a big bowl of his crazy life to you, oh hapless reader.
Did I forget to mention that he s also one of the greatest American artists of the last fifty years? Read on.
COOP

Williams paints the way Salvador Dali tries to paint.
Von Dutch

Superlatives, by necessity, must falter and be left moldering by the wayside in reference to Robert Williams.
Frank Kozik
Gearhead magazine, Issue #10

From the Inside Flap

While previous volumes have celebrated the art of Robert Williams, until now none have placed Williams’ life and extraordinary body of work in proper context by examining his unrepentant jones for hot rods. And who better to put this story into words than the man himself?
In this illustrated, two-fisted narrative, Williams brings readers along on a raucous ride, recalling his impossibly wild formative years and immersion in the country’s nascent youth culture of hot rods, rock ’n’ roll, and bowling alley rumbles; his long appreciation of the hot rod’s circle-track roots; and his happenstance arrival at Roth Studios. Williams’ recollections are populated by a rich cast of characters at once madcap (Ed Roth), surly (Von Dutch), dashing (Pete Eastwood), and soon-to-be revered (Gray Baskerville, Jim Jacobs, and Pete Chapouris). Notably, Williams delves deeply into his associations with Roth and Dutch, provides the first complete lowdown on his and wife Suzanne’s remarkable hot rods (including his hugely influential deuce roadster), and draws a neat line between his vast knowledge of history and the state of hot rodding today.
Illustrated throughout with photographs from Williams’ personal collection and with several artworks, The Hot Rod World of Robt. Williams is a testament to the author’s legendary status among modern hot rodders and artists alike.

Edition details

• Publisher: Motorbooks Intl
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0760326606
• ISBN 13: 9780760326602
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 176