NYC: Mr Bitchin', MoMA, and Mary.

A former co-worker and dear friend of mine flew into NYC from Los Angeles to attend the screening of a documentary she edited and received director credit on; the film is based on the Southern California fine artist Robert Williams and aptly titled: "Mr. Bitchin' "

Robert Williams 

Expectorating In A Fast Food Patron’s Double Burger Deluxe

1997

oil on canvas

Courtesey of artnet.com/Tony Shafrazi Gallery

Description

Explanatory Nomenclature: The Exhilaration Of Satisfying Spite Magnifies With The Degree Of How Far The Despicable Action Is Taken; Consequently, The Practice of Spewing Salivary Secretions Into The Food Products Of An Unknowing Consumer By A Restaurant Food Preparer Would Bring This Infectious Exchange Into The Sphere Of Clinical Animosity Ecstasy.

Poolroom Title: One Double Burger With Secret Phlegm, Hold The Antibiotics



Here is a description from The Whitney where his work was chosen for the 2010 Biennial:

Born in 1943 in Albuquerque, NM

Lives and works in Chatsworth, CA

Robert Williams’s watercolors picture a world in which the laws of physics wreak havoc on suburban neighborhoods and tommy gun–wielding cowboys with tomatoes for heads haunt the forests. Williams’s self-described “lowbrow” aesthetic is idiosyncratic and deeply rooted in the vernacular aesthetics of Californian subcultures. To create his meticulously crafted works, he applies classical fine art techniques to the visual language of underground comix and custom cars, informed by his early experiences of painting hot rods at Ed “Big Daddy” Roth’s legendary auto shop and contributing mind-expanded drawings to R. Crumb’s Zap Comix in the 1960s. In the cultural space between the museum and the comic book convention, Williams’s work has fostered an audience for self-conscious, uncompromising art that can also be truly popular.

Instead of attending the high profile Biennial opening night party at The Whitney in NYC,  Mr. Williams chose to attend a small opening of his work at Cal State Northridge, in Northridge California.

That's just the way Mr Bitchin' rolls.

The NYC screening took place at MoMA with the respected art magazine Juxtapoz presenting the film  - which btw, Mr Williams is a co-founder of.

The magazine, that is.

Mary on the left with her sister in law in front of MoMA pre- screening:

The Screen

The crowd filing in!

Full house!

Mary, moments before the screening is to start

(and, why yes, those are my gloves and eyeglass case on the ledge!)

 This was Mary's first documentary - and she ended up at MoMA in NYC - not too shabby for the first time. Granted it took her three years to complete the film, but many others try for much, much longer and never even get in the same breathing vicinity as MoMA.

Congrats, MARY!