Robert Watts (artist): Difference between revisions

He served injoined the United States Navy fromin December 1942 towhile Maystill 1946,in college ad becomingbecame an ensign in 1945 after graduating from college. He served aboard the aircraft carriers [[USS Guadalcanal (CVE-60)]] and the [[USS Solomons (CVE-67)]], and left the Navy in May 1946.<ref>[http://www.artpool.hu/Fluxus/Watts/Friedman_e.html Flux Med Dr Bob]</ref> Watts left the Navy and

He moved to New York in 1948, where he studied art at the [[Art Students League]] and later at [[Columbia University]] from where he gained a degree in the History of Art in 1951, majoring in pre-Columbian and non-Western Art.<ref name=MailArt/> After becoming Professor of Art at Douglass College, Rutgers University, 1953, he started to exhibit works in a proto-pop style. He participated in Pop Art shows such as ''New Forms, New Media'' exhibition in 1960 at Martha Jackson's Gallery; the ''Popular Image'' exhibition at the Washington Gallery of Art in 1963; and the 1964 ''American Supermarket'' exhibition at New York's Bianchini Gallery, which also featured [[Andy Warhol]], [[Claes Oldenburg]] and [[Tom Wesselmann]].<ref name=MailArt>[http://www.mailartist.com/johnheldjr/RobertWatts.html Mail Art John Held Jr] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090405050332/http://www.mailartist.com/johnheldjr/RobertWatts.html |date=April 5, 2009}}</ref> After exhibiting at [[Leo Castelli|Leo Castelli's]] Gallery in 1964, Watts turned his back on the gallery system, and concentrated instead on the [[anti-art]] of the emerging New York avant-garde centred around George Maciunas.