While ROBERT OVERBY was renown for his graphic design work from the late ‘60s to the mid ‘80s, his art work from the same period was shown rarely. In fact, it was not until his memorial service, where his wife, the artist Linda Burnham, hung a selection of his work, that the Los Angeles art-world realized that the man they knew as an accomplished designer and collector was also an artist of unique scope and intensity, whose work prefigured much of what is being made today.
From July 1969 to August 1973 ROBERT OVERBY completed 336 works, all of which he documented in a small red book that he produced as a work of art. During this time he worked in a variety of mediums including Polyvinyl chloride and resin; concrete and steel; cast rubber; polyester resin and fiberglass; latex rubber; sewn canvas; and oil on canvas. Overby displayed a striking mastery and skill in each of these mediums, and despite the diversity and the range in subject matter, created a cohesive and obsessive exploration into issues that remained central to his work for the next twenty years. Referring consistently to the human form as described in the language of every day experience (be it the geometry of our architecture or the imaging of the media), Overby mapped out a world of absences. With his pornographic wood cut-outs of the late ‘70s and his ‘80s image works, he continued his investigation into the body and the inherent loss in its representation.
