In today’s art market, “trendy art” has become a new field of development and the term was made for a certain type of art. Whether it is graffiti art, dolls, skateboards, or other art products, they all belong to the category of “trendy art”, which has a strong relationship with popular culture. Additionally, the commercial purpose of lowbrow art is greater than the actual significance of the creation itself. There is a certain style within this art movement, which also has the characteristics of pop art, although it has a stronger narrative structure. Under the academic art history discourse, it is often referred to as “cartoon comic”, “appropriation”, and other contemporary visual expression techniques, known as a contemporary “pop surrealist style”. However, the term “pop surrealist style” is intended to be accepted by “highbrow intellectuals” and to get closer to modern art history (given the title). However, before these definitions, it had another name: “Lowbrow art”.
“Lowbrow art” originated in Los Angeles in the 1970’s. The original meaning of “Lowbrow” in English is vulgar and is a translation of the disassembled and reassembled words low and brow (in contrast with highbrow). In 1994, the American painter Robert William (1943) founded “Juxtapoz” Magazine to promote this type of visual art. Lowbrow art uses parody, deceit, insults, and appropriation as creative gestures. It uses the artist’s own performative techniques, combined with pop culture images, in order to convey a complete narrative. Lowbrow art is considered to be a kind of visual expression developed as a result of alternative cultures such as punk culture, independent comics, street graffiti, skateboard culture, and cult movies after the 1970’s. The movement is also said to be a display of “subculture”. Through symbols and symbolic collage, artists with a Lowbrow art style focus on visual narratives, as well as creativity in image expression. Most of the artworks consist of colors seen in magic realism. Some works have happy party scenes, cute characters, and animals, while others are imaginations of future technologies and science. All in all, they include darkness and irony and a strong sense of warning. However, this painting style is often labeled as “cartoon comic style”, but ignores the artist’s visual expression. The strong symbolic narrative makes it easy for viewers to skip the discussion of painting techniques and focus on the meaning of the symbols and their relationship to the artist.
Because Lowbrow art incorporates a visual narrative, it is often used to design and create images in different commercial prints. Mark Ryden (1963), one of the most famous creators of Lowbrow art, shows off the style in the cover of his album, “Dangerous” for Michael Jackson, the King of Pop. The gorgeous architectural decoration and detailed images are very much like altar paintings in the church. Each image has its own meaning, and the entire work has a complete story. Gross’ work is a blend of Lowbrow and pop surrealism, narrating various scenes of life and transforming them into his works.
Because Lowbrow art originated from underground culture, it can be regarded as a reaction to academic art. It has no concern about whether or not it is accepted by mainstream art. Instead, it transforms artists to be able to open up a new world of their own. Like Pop art, it tries to break the distinction between high and low art and integrate popular, everyday things into art. In Lowbrow art, surreal artistic concepts and narrative symbols are apparent, which means there’s no need for special artistic interpretation to understand the subject. If we stand from the perspective of contemporary art, we can first exclude the definition of trendy art in the market, and we can think about these artworks that were called Lowbrow art in the past. The discussion surrounding the aesthetic of it, is carried under contemporary art. When reflecting the works of contemporary art, we must ask ourselves, in the end, is it art that responds to market trends, or is it art that is true to artistic practice?
Photo 1: Alex Gross, Lanvin (Paris), 2010 ©️ Alex Gross
Photo 2 top left：Kenny Scharf, Hannah Barbaric Paradise © Kenny Scharf
Photo 2 top right：Alex Gross, Shopaholics ©️ Alex Gross
Photo 2 bottom left：Ray Caesar, Mother and Child, 2013 © Ray Caesar
Photo 2 bottom right：Mark Ryden, Arurira, 2015
