Who knows which artists will be remembered in the future? I mean, the people of the 22nd + centuries will probably have their hands full anyway, but beyond that it's a guessing game.
Still, the paintings of Canadian artist Marcel Dzama should continue to charm. Partly because he seems to enjoy making them so much. Dzama has done a number of record covers, including for Beck's Guero. He accesses comic-like imagery, and sometimes comic book characters appear in his work. They don't retain the slickness of comic books, though. The characters have stepped back into a folk art world that runs on dream logic.
2 comments:
Oh it's easy to see why you like this artist, I like him too. I see what you mean about how pleased with the images he seems to be - like delighting in seeing the world for the first time. The comic book characters are definitely there but personalized as you say. I can also see a few Art Nouveau influences - Aubrey Beardsley comes to mind as does Toulouse-Lautrec and most definitely Georges Méliès moon image. Ah, and I just thought of another similarity and that's to the Japanese woodblock prints of the 19th century.
The picture you posted here reminded me immediately of Rousseau's Sleeping Gypsy but I'm not really certain why - simply something about the quiet desert landscape.
Yes, I do like his work and I'm glad to be reminded so did Beck.
I get what you mean about Beardsley and Toulouse Lautrec. Toulouse-Lautrec was an observational artist, following the example of etcher Honore Daumier. Beardsley took flights into the fantastic and the grotesque, albeit of a simplified kind. Somewhere in the suture between the two things is this. Japanese woodblock prints have been an influence on Western art at least since Van Gogh, and always seem to have a little more to give.
Thank you for sending me to look up The Sleeping Gypsy. I know I'd seen it before, but not in a while. Henri Rousseau was a naïve artist but he had a good sense of when to stop. He doesn't have as many horror vacui moments as some other Outsider artists.
Yeah, this whole post may have started with me listening to that album. Interesting cover.
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