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Showing posts with label mark ryden. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mark ryden. Show all posts

For New Year's Eve, The Party Hat In Art by 16 Artists From Jeff Koons to Redshift.



With New Year's Eve tonight and a new year of birthdays coming up, I was inspired by the notion of 'Party Hats' and wanted to see what was out there in terms of fine art that incorporated the classic pointed hat. I was not disappointed and I hope you won't be either.

Bunny Bonanza: In Art. In Books. In Movies. As Brands. And Just Big. (Over 80 pics!)




Above: Dieter Roth's Shit Hare (1975)

Happy Easter, Happy Bunny Day, Happy Christ Resurrection and all that. In honor of the holiday, I'm going to share with you a bunch o' bunnies. Bunnies in art, in literature, in movies, as brands and some of the biggest bunnies in the world. I had to really cull down this post or by the time you finished reading it, it'd be Christmas.

For the purpose of convenience, in this post I am referring to all rabbits and hares as Bunnies. I know that there are several differences, variations in species etc., but for ease and entertainment, today they are all Bunnies.

First off, there are so many bunny-related and bunny-inspired things out there that I must leave a large majority out of this post. But to see the hundreds of cute and not so cute bunny items and art made by talented people be sure to check etsy.com and flickr, deviant art, behance, coroflot, and other online art databases and user uploaded art sites.

Bunnies, or rabbits and hares, have been prevalent in art for centuries. Early biblical engravings and religious art often had the animal in them. Dutch and Flemish Masters frequently included them as soon to be meals in their kitchen and repast scenes.


above: Jean Baptiste-Oudry's Rabbit and Pheasant (1751)

Romantic French painters like Boucher and Fragonard often had the furry little animal in their angelic and cherubic landscapes. Being chased (or eaten) is how they were depicted in many an English hunting scene. Countless Victorian Easter cards and vintage German engraved Easter cards can still be found at many flea markets and antique stores (like the ones shown below).




Today they can be seen everywhere from handmade cutesy crafts, as advertising mascots, fun vinyl toys and in many a darker representation as well, such as Joseph Beuys' film still below.



above: Photo of Joseph Beuys’ performance How to Explain Paintings to a Dead Hare, Nov. 26, 1965

To start with, here's a little serious Bunny art for you. When I say serious, the following pieces go for thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars- if you can find an available original. Most of the names of the artists are probably fairly well known to many of you.

Bunnies By World Renowned Artists:

Albrecht Durer, german engraver and painter 1471—1528:

John James Audubon:

Henri Rousseau:

Barry Flanagan:


Andy Warhol:

Wayne Thiebaud:

Claus Oldenberg:

Jeff Koons:

Masao Kinoshita:


Bunnies by contemporary artists, illustrators and designers from all over the world:

Mark Ryden:


Luke Chueh:

Kathie Olivas:

Frank Kozik:


Kozyndan:


Darla Jackson:

Morwenna Catt:

Momoyo Torimitsu:


Kim Simonsson:

Haidee Henry:


Bunnies in Classic Literature:


Shown above:
Br'er Rabbit
Mr. Flopears
The Velveteen Rabbit
The White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland
Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit (click the link for a online flip book version)
Uncle Wiggly
Rabbit from A.A. Milne's Pooh books
and, of course, Pat The Bunny

Bunnies in movies:


Shown above:
Brer Rabbit From Disney's Song of The South
Thumper from Disney's Bambi
Roger Rabbit
Harvey (The Jimmy Stewart classic)
Donnie Darko

Bunnies as brands:




Shown above:
General Mills Trix Bunny
The Playboy Bunny
The Nestle's Quick Bunny, aka the Nesquik Bunny, aka Quicky
Blue Bunny Brand
The Volkswagon Rabbit logo
Blink 182's Rabbit
Miffy, the dutch bunny (books and branded items)
Warner Brothers' Bugs Bunny
Jim Benton's Happy Bunny
The Energizer Bunny
Sanrio's Melody
And the world's most fashionable rabbit, Fifi Lapin

And now for some BIG Ol' BUNNIES (or Rabbit Record Holders):
And these have all been snopes, hoax-slayer and urban legends verified. They are not photo-shopped or retouched.

Amy, the present record holder as of 2008:


Above: An average sized rabbit atop Amy, who weighs approx 49 lbs.
read the article here.



Above: Karl Smolinksy with Robert
Read the article here.

The 2006 record holder, Herr Rabbit, 22 pounds:


Also worth checking out:
Bunnylicious, a great blog of all things bunny.
Rabbits In Design
Rabbit Remix
Hopper Home Bunny Blog
Contemporary Rabbit Art

And special thanks to brandsoftheworld, artnet, artfacts, artcyclopedia, allposters, amazon and the individual artists for the use of their images.

Well, that should be enough bunny lore to keep you satisfied until next Easter!

Lowbrow Artists do Highbrow Charity




Thanks to Corey Helford Gallery of Culver City, today's most respected and popular "Lowbrow" Artists (see previous article on lowbrow art here) have culled together a fabulous show benefiting The Alliance For Children's Rights that takes vintage paint-by-number art and transforms it into unique pieces of low brow art.

Granted, this is not the first gallery to promote and exhibit the idea of paintng over vintage art. To be fair, The Wurst Gallery did this years ago, only not restricted to paint by number art.

With fun original creations by such well known popular artists as Mark Ryden, Shepard Fairey, Joe Ledbetter, Jeff Soto, Camille Rose Garcia and Gary Basemen, just to name a few, these paintings are available for auction on ebay with 100% of the proceeds benefiting The Alliance For Children's rights (see their mission statement below).

Available for purchase on ebay, the auctions ending on Friday, Feb 16th and prices are already rising rapidly, so you'd better get your bids in now.

Here are just a few wonderful examples of the original vintage PBN and the finished pieces. Click on images to enlarge:

Mark Ryden:

Gary Baseman:

Ana Bagoyen:

Shepard Fairey:

Jeff Soto:


The bids are moving up quickly on these works already, so if you'd like to see many more (and you should) be sure to visit Corey Helford Gallery of Culver City or check out the auctions on ebay.


above: Corey Helford Gallery

Nonprofit's Mission Statement
The Alliance for Children's Rights is protecting the rights and futures of abused and impoverished children throughout Los Angeles County, in hopes of creating a world in which all children are able to have a safe and permanent family, access to quality health care, a quality education, and all of the support and services they so rightfully deserve.

Is LowBrow Art Just A Fad?



Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, defines lowbrow art as follows:

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.

The majority of lowbrow artworks are paintings; there are also toys (vinyl and plush), and sculptures.


The definition goes on to discuss the first artists to create what came to be known as 'lowbrow' art, magazines in the genre (the most famous being Juxtapoz, whose editor, Robert Williams, claims to have coined the name "lowbrow"), and 'alternative' galleries that carry these types of works.

Just so you know to whose work I am referring, some of the most well-known of these artists are: SHAG (Josh Agle), Mark Ryden, Marion Peck, Todd Schorr, Elizabeth McGrath, Tim Biskup, Gary Baseman, Gary Taxali, Anthony Ausgang, Camille Rose Garcia, Joe Sorren, Tara McPherson and Raymond Pettibon.

The Wikipedia definition goes on to historically compare the Lowbrow artists to the Dadaists.

This is where they lose me.

Now, I really enjoy looking at their works, even own a few of their books. I am entertained by their not so subtle interpretation of pop culture and their 'jabs' at historic art. I even enjoy seeing how 'creepy and offensive' some of them can get.

But since when are illustrations, comic books, tattoos and graffiti considered an art movement?

Art, yes. Movement? Nah.

Comparing Shag to Marcel Duchamp makes me cringe.


Okay, so the first time Marcel Duchamp penned R. Mutt on a urinal and called it a "Fountain", the art world was aghast at what he considered art. But he was the first (the first) to take an everyday object and ascribe some ironic meaning to it.

Jeff Koons, a well respected contemporary artist, merely did the same years later and his work has recently been rapidly declining in value. You may recall the white porcelain puppy planters or blue balloon dogs on plates that appear in online auctions weekly.



Even Nara and Murakami (two asian artists whose work treads the fine line between 'fine art' and lowbrow' art and are referred to as Neo-Pop Japanese art) have also declined in value.



Just take a look at the chart below. It is January 2007 data from artprice on auction and sales values in the art world.



So, as I was saying before I got off on an art tangent there, Did Shag have the same impact on society that Marcel Duchamp did?

To compare some fun retro cocktail party scenes or cute tiki illustrations and altoid tins to Man Ray's Photographs or Duchamp's urinal is not only a stretch, it's a disservice to the fine art world.

Nowhere in the Wikipedia definition do the words goth, creepy, alien, retro or macabre appear, yet you can ascribe most of these adjectives to the work in this genre.

Yes, I'd pay a lot of money for an original Francis Bacon or Lucien Freud painting (similarly described as macabre, goth, creepy...even disturbing) but probably not for an original Mark Ryden. And that's not because Mr. Bacon is dead and Mr. Ryden is alive and kicking, but because, to me, Francis Bacon is an artist and Mark Ryden is an illustrator. Albeit an excellent illustrator. The difference between their work however is not merely because of the style or medium in which they work, but it's because of their originality, conceptuality and the emotion evoked by their works. Bacon's work is open to interpretation, multiple manifestations of theory and conjecture, whereas what you see is what you get with Ryden's work. One can look at Bacon's paintings and see something different every time, not so much with Ryden's.



Please understand me, I believe the aforementioned lowbrow artists are talented. I think their works are amusing at the very least and valid expressions of culture and society at the very most. I'd happily buy Shag's cocktail party invites to mail out or wear a Nara T-shirt. I hope these artists make money. I believe they work hard and have great talent. But is it art or a fad?

Over 15 years ago, I hired Gary Baseman to do some illustrations for a piece for Dayrunner (the organizational agenda company) and he did an excellent job. I picked him after looking through what was then the bible for art directors to find illustrators (the blackbook). But would I have considered going to a show of his works? Probably not.

I do believe that those people who plopped down 2500$ for a Shag lithograph 5 years ago, couldn't sell it on ebay for even half that today.

To whom exactly does low-brow art appeal? It's not like you can equate lowbrow with low cost anymore. Many of these artists sell pieces of their work for thousands of dollars. But will the value of these pieces increase?

According to market indeces and art world trends, the answer is no. I am not privy to Juxtapoz Magazines' circulation numbers or Shag's personal income, but I bet it's not climbing steadily.

So, before you 'invest' in a piece of lowbrow art, I have two words for you: Patrick Nagel.

Please donate

C'mon people, it's only a dollar.