Robert R. Overby; Artist

Robert R. Overby--painter, teacher and graphic designer whose work blended commercial, classic and contemporary art--has died at a Los Angeles hospital. He was 57.

A Glendale resident since 1985, Overby died Tuesday of Hodgkin’s disease, said his wife, Linda Burnham of Glendale.

Born in Harvey, Ill., Overby attended the Chicago Art Institute in the late 1950s and received his bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Los Angeles’ Art Center College of Design in the early 1960s.

Overby then began his own graphic design business, which he ran for 15 years, creating commercial artwork and corporate logos. After moving to Santa Barbara in 1975, Overby began a second career as an oil painter, combining contemporary advertising images with Renaissance styles and concepts into a series of modern, abstract works.

As an instructor, Overby taught at numerous schools, including Art Center, Chouinard Art Institute and UC Santa Barbara, where he met his future wife as a student.

Among his professional achievements, Overby was honored by Print magazine for his cover art for John Crasnow’s mystery novel, “Soft-Boiled,” winning best typography and best illustration.

Overby’s work was shown in numerous galleries on both coasts during his career, most recently as part of a 1989 solo exhibition of advertising interpretations at the Jan Baum Gallery in Los Angeles. “Despite chic quickness that encourages first-glance assimilation, many paintings are piles of fragmented imagery cunningly layered so that hidden forms emerge only with longer viewing,” a Times reviewer wrote at the time.

In addition to his wife of 13 years, Overby is survived by his mother, Joan, of Ojai, and a brother, Paul, of Portland, Ore.

A funeral is scheduled for noon Monday at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale. Forest Lawn Mortuary in Glendale is handling the arrangements.