Lowbrow (art movement)
Encyclopedia
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 subcultures. It is also often known by the name pop surrealism. Lowbrow art often has a sense of humor - sometimes the humor is gleeful, sometimes impish, and sometimes it is a sarcastic comment.
Most lowbrow artworks are painting
s, but there are also toy
s, digital art
, and sculpture
.
and Gary Panter
. Early shows were in alternative galleries
in New York and Los Angeles such as Psychedelic Solutions Gallery in Greenwich Village, New York City which was run by Jacaeber Kastor, La Luz de Jesus
run by Billy Shire and 01 gallery
in Hollywood, run by John Pochna. The movement steadily grew from its beginning, with hundreds of artists adopting this style. As the number of artists grew, so did the number of galleries showing Lowbrow; The Julie Rico Gallery and the Bess Cutler Gallery both showed important artists and helped expand the kind of art that was classified as Lowbrow. The lowbrow magazine Juxtapoz by Robert Williams
, first published 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.
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 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 it is inappropriate. Williams refers to the movement as "cartoon-tainted abstract surrealism
." Lately, Williams has begun referring to his own work as "Conceptual Realism."
, such as illustration
, tattooing and comic books. 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. All these aspects of art were deeply disparaged in the art schools and by curators and critics throughout the 1980s and 90s.
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. Joe Coleman, Mark Ryden
(from his 2007 'Tree Show' exhibition), Robert Williams, Ciou, Manuel Ocampo
, Georganne Deen, and the Clayton Brothers
are examples.
Some origins of lowbrow's approach can be traced to art movements of the early 20th century, specifically the works of the Dada
ists and the leading proponents of the American Regionalism
movement (artists such as Marcel Duchamp
and Thomas Hart Benton
, respectively) 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
, Kenny Scharf
, Takashi Murakami
, Greg Colson
, Inka Essenhigh
, Jim Shaw
, John Currin
, Mike Kelley, and the San Francisco-based Mission School
, which includes Barry McGee
and Margaret Kilgallen
.
There are also books focusing on individual lowbrow artists, including Mark Ryden
, Robert Williams, Joe Coleman
, SHAG (Josh Agle)
, Niagara (artist)
, Stacy Lande
, Todd Schorr
, Camille Rose Garcia
, Alex Pardee and Elizabeth McGrath
.
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, area in the late 1970s. Lowbrow is a widespread populist art movement with origins in the underground comix
Underground comix
Underground comix are small press or self-published comic books which are often socially relevant or satirical in nature. They differ from mainstream comics in depicting content forbidden to mainstream publications by the Comics Code Authority, including explicit drug use, sexuality and violence...
world, punk music, hot-rod street culture, and other subcultures. It is also often known by the name pop surrealism. Lowbrow art often has a sense of humor - sometimes the humor is gleeful, sometimes impish, and sometimes it is a sarcastic comment.
Most lowbrow artworks are painting
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
s, but there are also toy
Designer toys
Designer toys is a term used to describe toys and other collectibles that are produced in limited editions and created by artists and designers. Designer toys are made of variety of materials; ABS plastic and vinyl are most common, although wood, metal, and resin are occasionally used. The term...
s, digital art
Digital art
Digital art is a general term for a range of artistic works and practices that use digital technology as an essential part of the creative and/or presentation process...
, and sculpture
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
.
History
Some of the first artists to create what came to be known as lowbrow art were underground cartoonists like Robert WilliamsRobert Williams (artist)
Robert Williams is an American painter, cartoonist, and founder of Juxtapoz Art & Culture Magazine.Williams was part of the Zap Collective, along with other underground cartoonists such as Robert Crumb and Gilbert Shelton...
and Gary Panter
Gary Panter
Gary Panter is an illustrator, painter, designer and part-time musician. Panter's work is representative of the post-underground, new wave comics movement that began with the end of Arcade: The Comics Revue and the initiation of RAW, one of the second generation in American underground comix...
. Early shows were in alternative galleries
Art gallery
An art gallery or art museum is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art.Museums can be public or private, but what distinguishes a museum is the ownership of a collection...
in New York and Los Angeles such as Psychedelic Solutions Gallery in Greenwich Village, New York City which was run by Jacaeber Kastor, La Luz de Jesus
La Luz de Jesus
La Luz de Jesus Gallery is a commercial art gallery located in Los Angeles, California. It is closely associated with the Lowbrow Art Movement, Kustom Kulture, and pop surrealism.-History:...
run by Billy Shire and 01 gallery
01 gallery
01 Gallery is a contemporary art gallery located in downtown Los Angeles, California, U.S., founded by art dealer and curator John Pochna. The gallery is known for its contributions to the lowbrow art movement, as it frequently exhibits pieces with heavy graffiti and street art influences...
in Hollywood, run by John Pochna. The movement steadily grew from its beginning, with hundreds of artists adopting this style. As the number of artists grew, so did the number of galleries showing Lowbrow; The Julie Rico Gallery and the Bess Cutler Gallery both showed important artists and helped expand the kind of art that was classified as Lowbrow. The lowbrow magazine Juxtapoz by Robert Williams
Robert Williams (artist)
Robert Williams is an American painter, cartoonist, and founder of Juxtapoz Art & Culture Magazine.Williams was part of the Zap Collective, along with other underground cartoonists such as Robert Crumb and Gilbert Shelton...
, first published 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.
Origin of the term "lowbrow"
In an article in the February 2006 issue of his magazine Juxtapoz, Robert WilliamsRobert Williams (artist)
Robert Williams is an American painter, cartoonist, and founder of Juxtapoz Art & Culture Magazine.Williams was part of the Zap Collective, along with other underground cartoonists such as Robert Crumb and Gilbert Shelton...
took credit for originating the term "lowbrow art." He stated that in 1979 Gilbert Shelton
Gilbert Shelton
Gilbert Shelton is an American cartoonist and underground comix artist. He is the creator of The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, Fat Freddy's Cat, Wonder Wart-Hog, Philbert Desanex, Not Quite Dead, and the cover art to The Grateful Dead's 1978 album Shakedown Street.He graduated from Lamar High...
of the publisher Rip-Off Press decided to produce a book featuring Willams' paintings. Williams said 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
Highbrow
Used colloquially as a noun or adjective, highbrow is synonymous with intellectual; as an adjective, it also means elite, and generally carries a connotation of high culture. The word draws its metonymy from the pseudoscience of phrenology, and was originally simply a physical descriptor...
." He said the name then stuck, even though he feels it is inappropriate. Williams refers to the movement as "cartoon-tainted abstract surrealism
." Lately, Williams has begun referring to his own work as "Conceptual Realism."
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. However, Matt Dukes Jordan, author of Weirdo Deluxe, views the terms as interchangeable.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 today 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 artFine art
Fine art or the fine arts encompass art forms developed primarily for aesthetics and/or concept rather than practical application. Art is often a synonym for fine art, as employed in the term "art gallery"....
, such as illustration
Illustration
An illustration is a displayed visualization form presented as a drawing, painting, photograph or other work of art that is created to elucidate or dictate sensual information by providing a visual representation graphically.- Early history :The earliest forms of illustration were prehistoric...
, tattooing and comic books. 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. All these aspects of art were deeply disparaged in the art schools and by curators and critics throughout the 1980s and 90s.
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. Joe Coleman, Mark Ryden
Mark Ryden
-Early life:Ryden is the son of Barbara and Keith Ryden, born in Medford, Oregon but raised in Southern California. He has two sisters and two brothers, one a fellow artist named Keyth Ryden....
(from his 2007 'Tree Show' exhibition), Robert Williams, Ciou, Manuel Ocampo
Manuel Ocampo
Manuel Ocampo is a Filipino artist. His work fuses sacred Baroque religious iconography with secular political narrative. His works draw upon a wide range of art historical references, contain cartoonish elements, and draw inspiration from punk subculture.-Background:Manuel Ocampo was born in the...
, Georganne Deen, and the Clayton Brothers
Clayton Brothers
Rob Clayton and Christian Clayton are painters based in California.Both Rob and Christian Clayton hold BFA degrees from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California .Their work has been exhibited widely throughout America and Europe, and has been featured in several important shows...
are examples.
Some origins of lowbrow's approach can be traced to art movements of the early 20th century, specifically the works of the Dada
Dada
Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zurich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a...
ists and the leading proponents of the American Regionalism
Regionalism (art)
Regionalism is an American realist modern art movement that was popular during the 1930s. The artistic focus was from artists who shunned city life, and rapidly developing technological advances, to create scenes of rural life...
movement (artists such as Marcel Duchamp
Marcel Duchamp
Marcel Duchamp was a French artist whose work is most often associated with the Dadaist and Surrealist movements. Considered by some to be one of the most important artists of the 20th century, Duchamp's output influenced the development of post-World War I Western art...
and Thomas Hart Benton
Thomas Hart Benton (painter)
Thomas Hart Benton was an American painter and muralist. Along with Grant Wood and John Steuart Curry, he was at the forefront of the Regionalist art movement. His fluid, almost sculpted paintings showed everyday scenes of life in the United States...
, respectively) in which such art movements have questioned the distinctions between high and low art, fine art and folk art
Folk art
Folk art encompasses art produced from an indigenous culture or by peasants or other laboring tradespeople. In contrast to fine art, folk art is primarily utilitarian and decorative rather than purely aesthetic....
, 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
Pop art
Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine 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
High culture
High culture is a term, now used in a number of different ways in academic discourse, whose most common meaning is the set of cultural products, mainly in the arts, held in the highest esteem by a culture...
and low culture
Low culture
Low culture is a term for some forms of popular culture. Its opposite is high culture. It has been said by culture theorists that both high culture and low culture are subcultures....
, other more "mainstream" contemporary artists use artistic strategies similar to those employed by lowbrow artists. Examples include: Lisa Yuskavage
Lisa Yuskavage
Lisa Yuskavage is a contemporary American painter who lives and works in New York City. Her figurative oil painting is known for its engagement with the female form. Her name is pronounced yus-CAH-vitch....
, Kenny Scharf
Kenny Scharf
Kenny Scharf is an American painter who lives in Brooklyn, New York. The artist received his B.F.A in 1980 at the School of Visual Arts located in New York City. Scharf's works consist of popular culture based shows with made up science-related backgrounds...
, Takashi Murakami
Takashi Murakami
is an internationally prolific contemporary Japanese artist. He works in fine arts media—such as painting and sculpture—as well as what is conventionally considered commercial media —fashion, merchandise, and animation— and is known for blurring the line between high and low art...
, Greg Colson
Greg Colson
Greg Colson is an American artist best known for wall sculptures constructed of salvaged materials. Colson has had solo exhibitions throughout the United States and Europe, including Sperone Westwater , William Griffin Gallery , Galleria Cardi , Kunsthalle Lophem , Konrad Fischer , and the Lannan...
, Inka Essenhigh
Inka Essenhigh
Inka Essenhigh is a painter based in New York.Essenhigh studied at the Columbus College of Art and Design in Ohio and the School of Visual Arts in New York ....
, Jim Shaw
Jim Shaw (artist)
Jim Shaw is a contemporary American artist, born in Midland, MI, and who now lives and works in Los Angeles. He received his B.F.A. from University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1974 and his M.F.A. from the California Institute of the Arts, in 1978. Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA He is married to...
, John Currin
John Currin
John Currin is an American painter. He is best known for satirical figurative paintings which deal with provocative sexual and social themes in a technically skillful manner. His work shows a wide range of influences, including sources as diverse as the Renaissance, popular culture magazines, and...
, Mike Kelley, and the San Francisco-based Mission School
Mission School
The Mission School is an art movement of the 1990s and 2000s, centered in the Mission District of San Francisco, California.-History and characteristics:...
, which includes Barry McGee
Barry McGee
Barry McGee is a painter and graffiti artist. He is also known by monikers such as Ray Fong, Lydia Fong, Bernon Vernon, P.Kin, Ray Virgil, Twist and further variations of Twist, such as Twister, Twisty, Twisto and others.-Life and career:McGee graduated from El Camino High School in South...
and Margaret Kilgallen
Margaret Kilgallen
Margaret Leisha Kilgallen was a San Francisco Bay Area artist. Though a contemporary artist, her work showed a strong influence from folk art. She was considered a central figure in the Bay Area Mission School art movement....
.
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
Mark Ryden
-Early life:Ryden is the son of Barbara and Keith Ryden, born in Medford, Oregon but raised in Southern California. He has two sisters and two brothers, one a fellow artist named Keyth Ryden....
, Robert Williams, Joe Coleman
Joe Coleman (painter)
Joe Coleman is an American painter, illustrator and performance artist.-Biography:He was born Joseph Coleman, Jr. in Norwalk, Connecticut to a World War II-veteran father and the daughter of a professional prizefighter.-Work:...
, SHAG (Josh Agle)
SHAG (Josh Agle)
Josh Agle is an American artist, better known by the nickname SHAG.-Life:Agle's nickname is derived from the last two letters of his first name, and the first two letters of his last name...
, Niagara (artist)
Niagara (artist)
Niagara is a musician and a painter. She was the lead vocalist of the punk rock bands Destroy All Monsters and Dark Carnival.-Biography:...
, Stacy Lande
Stacy Lande
-Biography:Stacy Lande was born in Granada Hills, in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. From an early age she took pride in both stage performance and her art. Lande was formally trained in art at California State University, Northridge...
, Todd Schorr
Todd Schorr
Todd Schorr is an American artist and one of the most prominent members of the "Lowbrow" art movement or pop surrealism...
, Camille Rose Garcia
Camille Rose Garcia
Camille Rose Garcia is a Los Angeles-based lowbrow artist. she produces paintings, prints and sculpture in a gothic, "creepy" cartoon style. She cites as influences Walt Disney and Philip K. Dick. - Biography :...
, Alex Pardee and Elizabeth McGrath
Elizabeth McGrath
Elizabeth McGrath is an artist based in California who works primarily in the fields of sculpture and animation. Her work is often evocative of the darker side of life, and she has been nicknamed Bloodbath McGrath after the subject matter of her works...
.
- Honerla,Elisabeth,2008,The Upset-Young Contemporary Art, published by Gestalten,Berlin,283 pages, ISBN 978-89955-221-8
Magazines
- Juxtapoz magazine is a significant lowbrow publication, functioning 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.
- Forno Magazine includes lowbrow art works associated with sexual themes.
- Dangerous Ink Magazine is a UK lowbrow magazine, exposing the movement to the British.
- Beautiful/Decay Magazine documents the convergence of fine art, graffiti, design, fashion, music, and other contemporary forms of art.
- TokionTokionTokion is a New York-based magazine covering art, fashion, music and film. It publishes separate US, UK, and Japanese editions. Tokion also produces the annual Creativity Now Conference, a weekend-long seminar of panel discussions with speakers from across the creative spectrum.- History :Tokion...
is a magazine with both Japanese and US editions. - Stirato is an Italian lowbrow magazine, featuring artists from around the world.
Documentaries
Several films have been made to document the Lowbrow movement, including:See also
- Chicago ImagistsChicago ImagistsThe Chicago Imagists is the name of a group of representational artists associated with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago who exhibited at the Hyde Park Art Center in the late 1960s. Their work was known for grotesquerie, surrealism and complete uninvolvement with New York art world trends...
- KitschKitschKitsch is a form of art that is considered an inferior, tasteless copy of an extant style of art or a worthless imitation of art of recognized value. The concept is associated with the deliberate use of elements that may be thought of as cultural icons while making cheap mass-produced objects that...
- Lowbrow pop surrealism artists
- MassurrealismMassurrealismMassurrealism is a portmanteau word coined in 1992 by American artist James Seehafer, who described a trend among some postmodern artists that mix the aesthetic styles and themes of surrealism and mass media—including pop art.-History:...
- Naive artNaïve artNaïve art is a classification of art that is often characterized by a childlike simplicity in its subject matter and technique. While many naïve artists appear, from their works, to have little or no formal art training, this is often not true...
- Outsider artOutsider ArtThe term outsider art was coined by art critic Roger Cardinal in 1972 as an English synonym for art brut , a label created by French artist Jean Dubuffet to describe art created outside the boundaries of official culture; Dubuffet focused particularly on art by insane-asylum inmates.While...
- SteampunkSteampunkSteampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. Steampunk involves a setting where steam power is still widely used—usually Victorian era Britain or "Wild West"-era United...
- StuckismStuckismStuckism is an international art movement founded in 1999 by Billy Childish and Charles Thomson to promote figurative painting in opposition to conceptual art...