Robert Overby (1935–1993) was born in Harvey, Illinois, and educated at the Art Center School of Design and the Chouinard Art Institute, both in Los Angeles, where he spent most of his life. Overby created a multifaceted body of work that ranged from painting to installation art that was rarely exhibited during his lifetime. Many of the works created between 1969 and 1973 were documented in his self-published 'red book' titled Robert Overby: 336 to 1, August 1973–July 1969. In 2000, Overby was the subject of a retrospective at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, which paved the way for his recent major solo museum survey, Robert Overby: Works 1969–1987, curated by Alessandro Rabottini (Centre d’Art Contemporain [Geneva, Switzerland]; travelled to Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo [Bergamo, Italy], Bergen Kunsthall [Bergen, Norway], and Le Consortium [Dijon, France]). Robert Overby: Works 1969–1987 was accompanied by a major publication of the same title, with texts by Andrea Bellini (Director of the Centre d’Art Contemporain in Geneva), Martin Clark (Director of the Bergen Kunsthall), Robin Clark (art historian and Director of the Artist Initiative, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art), Alison M. Gingeras (art historian and independent curator), and Terry R. Myers (art historian and Director of the Department of Painting and Drawing at the Art Institute of Chicago). The catalogue, published by Mousse Publishing, also includes the most complete chronology on the artist’s life and works, edited by Marianna Vecellio, curator at Castello di Rivoli—Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Rivoli, Turin.
