I thought “this book should be really cool” and of course I was right. I also thought they would never send me a free copy, but they did, making me very happy. At a first peek into the volume, my impression was something like “How many great artworks!”; it was exactly what I was looking for, so I was already quite satisfied. But the book is more than that: there are some interesting introductory texts by Robert Williams, Meg Linton and Bolton Colburn which give the reader a good insight about the subjects. The whole book is something like the definitive consecration of Lowbrow Art as an art movement. Because it is an art movement, even though everyone – both supporters and haters – says that it is not. Only Wikipedia seems to agree with me – it’s always good to have the collective mind on one’s side.
The Art World condemned this wide and heterogeneous group of artists because they are inspired by low and dirty subjects conveyed by media like comics, advertising, illustration, B movies, graphic art, tattoo art, pornography etc. But from a more precise point of view, we can easily see that this is nothing but the natural environment of Western Culture (and not only). These low, dirty subjects are nothing more than a great part of our low, dirty world.
They said they are not real artists. How pesky. They are so many, and so different; not everyone is good of course but many are artists. Let me give some examples, someone who I feel like the “best in show” in the book: Mark Ryden, Ray Caesar, Marion Peck, Michael Hussar, Zhi Lin, Gary Baseman, Takashi Murakami, Shepard Fairey… they are for sure great artists in the full meaning of the term.
In the second instance, Lowbrow Art1 gets a lot of inspiration from Art History, directly or indirectly. Indeed we should never forget that comics, advertising, illustration, B movies, graphic art, tattoo art and even pornography are greatly inspired by Art. Moreover, the relation with Pop Art, Surrealism, Italian Renaissance, Flemish art and Medieval art is clearly visible.
But this is not the point yet. Many artists (if not all) in the book are very appreciated by the public, and this anti academic we-are-not-an-art-movement group is going mainstream now; we can already see many young artists copying their styles! Juxtapoz has one of the highest circulations among art magazines in the US. I don’t need to defend their dignity, they are powerful enough.
The point is that every art begins as anti academic and then it becomes the new academia. It happened in the past and it happens now, it’s part of the natural life of our languages and ideas. In different words: in the violent world of ideas we need to kill to make some room, but we never forget our love for the past. The second point is to stop the sore of Languages Racism. There’s not an high language and a low language, there are only deep, interesting messages and shit. If you feel deep, interesting, philosophic meanings reading a comic (who didn’t reading Andrea Pazienza?) or watching a conceptual artwork, they are both great works. Third point: If an artwork’s value in the market is how much someone can spend to buy it, an artwork value in the ethereal world of the ideas is how much time someone can spend watching and thinking about it – and how many effects2 will sprout from these thoughts, and if you feel this time like somewhat Holy.
These are my three, simple points about this subject. I could write more, but people never read too much on the Internet, and my English really sucks. Of course this could look like too personal, but I swear I quoted many important thinkers like Wittgenstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Picasso, Heidegger, Musil, Bataille etc. I’m only too lazy to quote them all properly. I’m too lazy to find a good conclusion as well, so I’ll close the article with my favorite quote from Robert Williams, artist and Juxtapoz founder:
All art is great – all art is shit. Don’t let anybody try to tell you what’s what.
Sounds like a sort of Punk Taosim, doesn’t it?
Some official information about the book:
Since 1994, Juxtapoz Magazine, published in San Francisco, has provided a forum for so called Lo-Brow art-work inspired by comics, hot rods, and popular culture –and has become, in the years since, the most widely read art magazine in the United States. Juxtapoz provides a voice and validation for a brand of artist, like founder Robert Williams, Mark Ryden, Coop, Camille Rose Garcia, Glen Barr, the Clayton Brothers, Isabel Samaras, Joe Coleman, and many, many others, who have not historically been accepted by the typical art-world infrastructure of collector, curator, and critic. However, since its founding, it has become the leverage point for the creation of its own infrastructure that supports Juxtapozian art with galleries around the world, collectors, increasing critical attention, and museum exhibitions at adventurous institutions. This exciting and provocative collection presents a group of artists who rejected traditional rules of the art establishment and created their own canon, known as the Juxtapoz School. Published in conjunction with the Laguna Art Museum for the 2008 exhibition In the Land of Retinal Delights.
160 Pages, Paperback, 210 x 283 mm, 250 Illustrations
ISBN: 978-1-58423-317-6
