Lowbrow (art movement)

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Jack Off Jill Cover Art by Mark Ryden
Jack Off Jill Cover Art by Mark Ryden
Cover Art by Joe Coleman
Cover Art by Joe Coleman

'Lowbrow, or lowbrow art,' describes an underground visual art movement that arose in the Los Angeles, California, area in the late 1970s. Lowbrow is a widespread populist art movement with origins in the underground comix world, punk music, hot-rod street culture, and other California subcultures. It is also often known by the name pop surrealism.

Most lowbrow artworks are paintings, but there are also toys, and sculptures.

Contents

[edit] History

The first artists to create what came to be known as lowbrow art were underground cartoonists: Robert Williams and Gary Panter. Early shows were in alternative galleries in Los Angeles such as La Luz de Jesus run by Billy Shire and the Rico and Julie Rico Gallery in Santa Monica, California. The movement steadily grew from its beginning, with hundreds of artists adopting this style. The lowbrow magazine Juxtapoz by Robert Williams, begun in 1994, has been a mainstay of writing on lowbrow art, and has helped direct and grow the movement.

Writers have noted that there are now distinctions to be drawn between how lowbrow manifests itself in different regions and places. Some see a distinct U.S. "west coast" lowbrow style, which is more heavily influenced by underground comix and hot rod car-culture than elsewhere. As the lowbrow style has spread around the world, it has been intermingled with the tendencies in the visual arts of those places in which it has established itself. As lowbrow develops there may be a branching - as there was with previous art movements - into different strands and even whole new art movements.

[edit] Origin of the term "lowbrow"

In an article in the February 2006 issue of his magazine Juxtapoz, Robert Williams took credit for originating the term "lowbrow art". He stated that, in 1979, Gilbert Shelton of the publisher Rip-Off Press decided to produce a book featuring Willams' paintings. Williams said that he decided to give the book the self-deprecating title, "The Lowbrow Art of Robt. Williams", since no authorized art institution would recognize his type of art. "Lowbrow" was thus used by Williams in opposition to highbrow. He said the name then stuck, even though he feels that it is inappropriate.

[edit] Lowbrow or pop surrealism

Lowbrow is also commonly referred to as pop surrealism. Kirsten Anderson, who edited the book Pop Surrealism, considers lowbrow and pop surrealism to be related but distinct movements. [1] However, Matt Dukes Jordan, author of Weirdo Deluxe, views the terms as interchangeable.

[edit] Lowbrow vs. "fine" art

Museums, art critics, mainstream galleries, etc., have been uncertain as to the status of lowbrow in relation to the fine art world, and to date it has been largely excluded - although this has not stopped some collectors from buying the works. Some art critics doubt that lowbrow is a "legitimate" art movement, and there is thus very little scholarly critical writing about it. The standard argument of critics is that critical writing arises naturally from within an art movement first, and then a wider circle of critics draws upon this writing to inform their own criticism. This apparent absence of internal critical writing may be because many lowbrow artists began their careers in fields not normally considered fine art, such as illustration, tattooing and comic books, and/or do not have a university degree in fine art.[citation needed] Many lowbrow artists are self-taught, which further alienates them from the world of museum curators and art schools.

Many in the art world have deeper difficulties with lowbrow's figurative focus, its cultivation of narrative, and its strong valuing of technical skill.[citation needed] All these aspects of art were deeply disparaged in the art schools and by curators and critics throughout the 1980s and 90s.[citation needed]

However, a number of artists who started their careers by showing in lowbrow galleries have gone on to show their work primarily in mainstream fine art galleries. Mark Ryden (from his 2007 'Tree Show' exhibition), Robert Williams, Manuel Ocampo, Georganne Deen, and the Clayton Brothers are examples.

Echoes of lowbrow's approach can be found in the art history of the 20th century, beginning with the work of the Dadaists and the leading proponents of the American Regionalism movement (artists like Marcel Duchamp and Thomas Hart Benton) in which such art movements have questioned the distinctions between high and low art, fine art and folk art, and popular culture and high-art culture. In some sense lowbrow art is about exploring and critiquing those distinctions, and it thus shares similarities with the pop art of the 1960s and early 70s. One can also note that just as the lowbrow artists play in the blurred (or perhaps evaporated) boundaries between high and low culture, other more "mainstream" contemporary artists use artistic strategies similar to those employed by lowbrow artists. Examples include: Lisa Yuskavage, Kelly D. Williams, Kenny Scharf, Takashi Murakami, Jim Shaw, John Currin, Mike Kelley, and the San Francisco-based Mission School, which includes Barry McGee and Margaret Kilgallen.

[edit] Lowbrow artists

SHAG (Josh Agle), Mark Ryden, Marion Peck, Todd Schorr, Elizabeth McGrath, Tim Biskup, Gary Baseman, Gary Taxali, Anthony Ausgang, Camille Rose Garcia, and Raymond Pettibon are some well-known lowbrow artists.

See: List of lowbrow artists

[edit] Influences/References

Lowbrow artworks are often influenced by, and make reference to, the following sources:

[edit] Lowbrow galleries

Lowbrow art is shown in many galleries around the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Of the over 100 galleries showing lowbrow art in the world, many are dedicated almost entirely to this kind of art. Notable U.S. lowbrow galleries include:

Los Angeles

New York

Sacramento

Seattle

San Francisco

Minneapolis

  • OX-OP

Astoria, Oregon

  • Lunar Boy Gallery

Davison, Michigan

  • Art Cafe of Davison

[edit] Lowbrow books

There are several books which offer overview histories of lowbrow, including the following:

  • Kirsten Anderson. (2005) Pop Surrealism: The Rise of Underground Art. ISBN 0-86719-618-1
  • Matt Dukes Jordan. (2005) Weirdo Deluxe: The Wild World of Pop Surrealism and Lowbrow Art. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. ISBN 0-8118-4241-X In addition to showing some of the best examples of the work of 23 lowbrow/pop surrealist artists, "Weirdo Deluxe" includes an introduction, an extensive illustrated timeline of 20th-century popular and fine-art culture that has shaped this movement, plus interviews with the artists in which they discuss influences on their art. The detailed timeline includes information about shows and events in Pop Surreal/Lowbrow art, and, when combined with the interviews and the introduction, offers the first comprehensive history of this movement, charting its key moments, its origins, and its rise to worldwide influence and popularity.
  • Aaron Rose and Christian Strike. (2004). Beautiful Losers: Contemporary Art and Street Culture. ISBN 1-891024-74-4
  • Sherri Cullison. (2002) Vicious, Delicious, and Ambitious: 20th Century Women Artists. ISBN 0-76431-634-6 The women of Lowbrow.

There are also books focusing on individual lowbrow artists, including Mark Ryden, Robert Williams, Joe Coleman, The Pizz, SHAG (Josh Agle), and Elizabeth McGrath.

[edit] Lowbrow magazines

  • Robert Williams' Juxtapoz magazine is a significant lowbrow publication, which functions as a sort of journal of the movement.
  • Raw Vision magazine covers outsider art and lowbrow art. It contains full color images and concise articles on non-mainstream artists.
  • Hi Fructose magazine, which debuted in 2005, focuses on lowbrow art, especially toys.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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