Artistic Influences of Lowbrow/Pop Surrealism

[commandax]

I thought it might be interesting to look at some of the influences that the artists we love often mention. It seems to me that many of us who follow lowbrow/pop surrealism aren't very interested in art history, and perhaps that's because we were subjected to a lot of tedious lectures about rather uninspiring famous paintings in school. However, many of our favorite artists are devotees of artistic styles that have been out of fashion for much of the past century, so it might be fun to find out more about them. There are hundreds of very weird and wonderful artists and illustrators from outside this genre who formed the foundation upon which this art movement stands.

Feel free to chime in with any favorites, even if you don't know of a specific artist who's been influenced by them... or show us a few examples of the art your favorite artist likes. It would be very cool to see an example of a current piece, then a few paintings from outside this genre that inspired or influenced it. I hope I'm not the only one interested in having this discussion!

Just to get it started, here are a few artists who I've noticed come up a lot when artists discuss their influences:

Caspar David Friedrich (1744-1840, Dresden, Germany) Romanticism
Landscape painter who strove to illuminate aspects of the human spirit via the depiction of the sublime in Nature.

"Wanderer above the Sea of Fog"


"The Abbey in the Oakwood"


"The Sea of Ice"



Odd Nerdrum (born in 1944, Sweden)
A neo-baroque figurative rebel fighting against a sea of modernists, Nerdrum expresses human emotion through the time-honored medium of craft.

"Earlymorning"


"Pike with Butterfly"


"Drifting"



Hieronymous Bosch (~1450-1516, Netherlands)
Perhaps the first surrealist, Bosch expressed medieval ideas of redemption and eternal damnation in graphic and horrifying detail.

"Temptation of St. Anthony" triptych


"Temptation of St. Anthony" detail


"Garden of Earthly Delights" triptych


"Garden of Earthly Delights" outer leaves



William Blake (1757-1827, England) Romanticism
Visionary poet/artist who used symbolism to express his personal mystical philosophies.

"The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with Sun"


"The Ghost of a Flea"


"Nebuchadnezzar"

[Kirsten]

This is very interesting! I like to write about this type of thing- I feel that Pop Surrealism (as opposed to Lowbrow- it's pretty documented that I feel the two are somewhat different is really a descendent of the Symbolism/Fantastic Realism movement. With Surrealism, Pop, and in some cases maybe a touch of Futurism thrown in. If you like this stuff I recommend picking up books about Symbolism- there are some great ones out there. People who enjoy Audrey Kawasaki and Stella Hultburg might really dig the Pre-Raphaelites for example, and people who like Chet Zar and Naoto Hattori might find a whole new world of incredible art through Fantastic Realism. If you like " The Creatrix" by Ryden, check out "Mystic Flower" and "Jupiter" by Gustave Moreau.
Commandax- I would add Arnold Bocklin whose famous painting "Isle Of The Dead" has inspired such painters as H.R. Giger and Pooch (in fact- I think there is a show in the works about that very subject).
I think Pop Surrealism can be be a good platform to start exploring other, equally fascinating art movements (especially now that so much is online) without hideously boring art school lectures.

[commandax]

Hi Kirsten! Thanks for starting things off here – I can't think of anyone who would validate this thread more than you!

I'll work on illustrating some of Kirsten's suggestions, for those who'd rather not do the searching:

Arnold Böcklin (1827-1901, Switzerland) Art Nouveau/Symbolism
Inspired H.R. Giger and Michael "Pooch" Pucciarelli
Böcklin portrayed mythological characters within a classical structure, and was morbidly fascinated with the cemetery in Florence where his daughter was buried, which inspired his most famous painting, "The Isle of the Dead."

"The Isle of the Dead"


"Medusa"


"Self-Portrait with Death"


"In the Play of the Waves"

[commandax]

Here are four of my favorite painters who are associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood – there are dozens of others, if you're interested. As Kirsten mentioned, the Pre-Raphaelites were inspirational for artists like Stella Im Hultberg and Audrey Kawasaki. The Pre-Raphaelites were a reform movement in painting, in rejection of the mechanistic approach to composition which had pervaded the art world in the wake of Raphael and Michelangelo. One of their tenets was "To sympathise with what is direct and serious and heartfelt in previous art, to the exclusion of what is conventional and self-parodying and learned by rote."


John William Waterhouse (1849-1917, England) Pre-Raphaelite with French Impressionist leanings
Waterhouse's melancholy, emotionally charged work celebrates the interconnection of nature, love and death, often with an occult subtext.

"Boreas"


"Ophelia" 1888


"Ophelia" 1910


"The Charmer"


"The Soul of the Rose"



Edward Robert Hughes (1851-1914, England) Pre-Raphaelite with Symbolist tendencies
Hughes' meticulously observed work, often inspired by Italian literature, explores mystical and fantastic themes.

"Heart of Snow"


"Midsummer Eve"


"The Valkyrie's Vigil"


"Oh, What's That in the Hollow?"


"Noc"



Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882, England) Pre-Raphaelite
Both an erotic poet and co-founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Rossetti used luxuriant color and mystical themes to depict idealized women in sensuous, languid scenes.

"Proserpine"


"The Day Dream" (study)


"A Sea Spell"


"Verticordia"

[sleepboy]

Wow, this is going over my head but I did look up Moreau since I do like the Creatrix by Ryden. There are similarities... pretty cool.

[roqlarue]

Thanks for posting such great images- there are a few I had not seen before!

[commandax]

Symbolism was an expansion of the darker side of the Romantic movement, and a reaction against Naturalism and Realism. The Symbolists used mythology and dream imagery in an attempt to create a visual language of the soul, and as a result their work was often personal and obscure. The movement is sometimes said to have encompassed such diverse artists as Edvard Munch, Frida Kahlo and even Rene Magritte.

Gustav Klimt (1862-1918, Austria) Symbolism/Art Nouveau
Klimt used mythology and allegory to disguise the highly charged eroticism of his work.

"Danae"


"Gold Fish"


"The Virgins"


"Hygiene" (detail from the destroyed "Medicine" mural)



Odilon Redon (1840-1916, France) Symbolism
Redon said, "My drawings inspire, and are not to be defined. They place us, as does music, in the ambiguous realm of the undetermined."
He sought to "place the visible at the service of the invisible."

"Cyclops"


"Chariot of Apollo"


"Smiling Spider"


"Virgin with Corona"



Franz von Stuck (1863-1928, Germany) Symbolism/Art Nouveau
Drawing mainly from mythology, Stuck often painted heavy, sculptural forms and seductive femmes fatales.

"Kiss of the Sphinx"


"Sensuality"


"Fantastic Hunt"


"Susanna Bathing"


"Salome"



Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921, Belgium) Symbolism/Romanticism
Knopff combined precisely rendered scenes with a mood of silence, isolation and reverie, often depicting the dual image of woman as seductress vs. angel.

"The Caresses, or The Sphinx"


"The Cigarette"


"The Silver Tiara"


"By the Seaside"


"I Lock my Door upon Myself"



Carlos Schwabe (1877-1926, Switzerland) Symbolism
Schwabe was an allegorical painter/illustrator haunted by the concepts of virginal purity, death and suffering.

"Spleen and Ideal"


"Death of the Gravedigger"


Illustration for Les Fleurs du Mal


"The Faun"

[commandax]

I just remembered reading this Mark Ryden interview from the 3/16/07 LA Weekly, where he talks about his fascination with the career and technical skills of William-Adolphe Bouguereau.

Ryden may be wary of discussing his own position in the art world, but he’s animated on the subject of William-Adolphe Bouguereau, the 19th-century French painter.

“Do you know Bouguereau?” he asks. “He’s one of the most hated artists ever. He’s also one of the most skilled artists ever. He paints flesh better than any artist, I feel. I don’t think his paintings are the best paintings ever. His content is peasant girls, beautiful peasant girls, and it offends so many people, so many people just hate him with a passion — but they’re painted so well. Especially for an artist, to look at just that application of paint mimicking flesh — it’s just mind-boggling, how amazing it is. People now want to know how to do that, they can appreciate it.”

The more he talks, describing a debate the Getty organized on the subject of Bouguereau last summer, the more personal his account begins to sound.

“He was hated for being very successful in his time,” he says. “It’s very respected to be insane like Van Gogh and never sell a painting — that’s a respectable way to be an artist. But to actually be successful with it and make good money is a sin.”

www.markryden.com/press/laweekly0307.html

William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905, France) Academic
Bouguereau was a staunch traditionalist and technical genius with a natural instinct for color who openly derided the Impressionists. Wildly successful in his time, he fell out of fashion in the 1920s with the rise of the avant-garde, and was nearly forgotten until quite recently, with the re-emergence of figurative painting. Nevertheless, Bouguereau is still considered a "hack" by many in the art world.

According to The NY Times, "His name was always a joke to the avant-garde. Degas and his friends used the term 'bouguerated' to derogate a finicky, overly finished painting surface, and van Gogh put him down as a well-paid maker of 'soft, pretty things.'"

"Biblis"


"Dawn"


"Nymphs and Satyr"


"The Nymphaeum"

[commandax]

Henri Rousseau (1844-1910, France) Impressionist in the Naive or Primitive manner
Entirely self-taught, Rousseau was a mere customs clerk – he never left France or saw a jungle in his entire life. His work was thought shockingly childish and was ridiculed in art circles, yet he became an important influence on artists like Picasso and many of the Surrealists. Picasso discovered Rousseau when he came across one of Rousseau's paintings being sold on the street as a canvas to be re-used.

Just my opinion, but I think elements of Rousseau's primitivism can be seen in the work of painters like Andy Kehoe. Also, certain florid, stylized aspects of Tiffany Bozic's otherwise scientific Audubon-like style remind me a bit of Rousseau. I'm sure there are plenty of better examples, though!

"The Repast of the Lion"


"Surprise!"


"The Snake Charmer"


"The Dream"


"The Hungry Lion"


"The Sleeping Gypsy"

[commandax]

Thought I'd start off today's post by exploring one of Audrey Kawasaki's influences, since so many on this forum enjoy her work.

Interviewer: Your art seems to have some strong art historical influences. The impact of Art Nouveau, Japanese printmaking and anime on your aesthetic are almost undeniable. To what extent do you consider such art historical precedents when creating your work?

Audrey Kawasaki: I have definitely been influenced by Art Nouveau and manga. I was inspired heavily by anime and manga when I was younger, and began drawing around that time. I think that might be why I always lean towards that comforting emphasis on line flow. Historical precedents, though, are something I never really think about. I paint what feels good to me, aesthetically, and my idea of beauty is influenced by a large whirlpool of things.

more here: www.nyartsmagazine.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5472&Itemid=708

Art Nouveau was a movement of individual artists from different disciplines – including Gustav Klimt, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Alfons Mucha, René Lalique, Antoni Gaudí and Louis Comfort Tiffany – each of whom interpreted it in their own distinct fashion. Its common element was the use of undulating rhythmic line motifs and highly stylized organic designs based on water, smoke, flowers and plants. In painting and lithography, it was an outgrowth of the Pre-Raphaelite aesthetic in rejection of the cluttered Gothic revival tendencies of the Victorians. Another strong influence on Art Nouveau was the color scheme and flat perspective of Japanese woodcuts, which were wildly popular in Europe at the time.

Brandi Milne's work exhibits elements introduced by the Art Nouveau aesthetic, and I'm sure there are many other examples.

I think Audrey's most direct influence is probably Alphons Mucha.

Alphons Mucha (1860-1939, Czech) Art Nouveau
Mucha was a painter and commercial artist whose aesthetic formed the backbone of the Art Nouveau movement in two-dimensional art. In 1895, he created his first poster (to advertise a play) and his distinctive style became an overnight sensation in Paris. For many years he was quite successful, but by the time modernism was well established, his art was considered outdated. Art Nouveau became popular again in the 1960s, and Mucha was very influential upon rock poster design of that era.

"Poetry"


"Dance"


"Evening Star"


"Pole Star"


"Summer"


"Winter"


"Dawn"


"Dusk"



As long as I'm talking Art Nouveau, I have to give a shout-out to my favorite Art Nouveau artist. He's not as well-known as Mucha, but he had a distinctive and compelling style, and I think he deserves to be considered among the masters of Belle Époque poster design.

Henri Privat-Livemont (1861-1936, Belgium) Art Nouveau
Privat-Livemont was a painter and theatrical decorator before he stumbled into creating lithographs in 1890, when he entered a poster contest and unexpectedly won. Though he has sometimes been denigrated as a follower of Mucha, he developed his distinctive virtuoso style independently, five years before Mucha made his first poster.

"Absinthe Robette"


"Le Reforme – Le Masque Anarchiste"

[commandax]

I'm astonished at how hard it's been to keep a couple of those Franz von Stuck paintings from being zapped by the photo hosts. Imageshack seems to be holding the line for now... I guess they either aren't fazed by racy images or have more of a sense of aesthetics than Tinypic and Photobucket. I know "Sensuality" is pretty sexy, but it's hardly anatomical. You'd think that after a painting had been in existence for nearly 120 years, societal mores would have evolved to the point where it would be considered "artistic" rather than "naughty."



"Franz von Stuck achieved the greatest success of his career with 'The Sin,' which was hailed as a work of genius at the 1893 exhibition of the Munich Secession. Rows of seats had to be placed in front of the painting for the crowds of fascinated viewers. 'Sin' was a variant of the yet more suggestive 'Sensuality,' which Stuck had painted four years previously. So great was the demand for these pictures that Stuck painted at least eighteen versions of the subject of a woman entwined with a snake under the titles of 'Sin,' 'Sensuality' and 'Vice.'" – Patrick Bade, Femme Fatale: Images of Fascinating and Evil Women

[thecreep]

Wow, what a great thread. My last Art History Professor was a great wealth of knowledge when it came to art, but no matter how hard I tried he would not accept that some of the artists today were amazing painters.

So here is one example that I always liked.

Zdzisław Beksiński (24 February 1929 – 21 February 2005)
A great deal of current artists were influenced by Beksinki, but I think it is most clear in the work of Chet Zar. I also see it a little bit in the work of Martin Wittfooth even though I haven't read him saying that.

His is also another artist along with Michelangelo that burned a great deal of their work. Beksinki said the works were too personal, while Michelangelo was hiding the labors he endured for his paintings.

Sorry Finding the names is a pain and I can't find my book with his works.

Beksinki's take on Arnold Böcklin's "The Isle of the Dead"?






There was too many choices, so here is a link to a huge gallery of his works: bsd.miki.eu.org/gallery/Beksinski?page=1

[commandax]

Wow. Amazing work, I can't believe I've never seen it before.

For anyone interested, Zdzisław Beksiński was Polish, and despite the morbid nature of his work, he was a rather cheerful, friendly fellow. He apparently he never gave titles to his paintings.

Ones I loved:

[doktor]

Splendid splendid thread.
I personally love the PreRaphelites and art Nouveau works and a lot of the Symboist pieces.

I would like to throw Felicien Rops into the mix too ( www.artinthepicture.com/artists/Felicien_Rops/ ).

I was also going to mention some later artists too who probably were working when the current crop of Pop Surrealists and Low brow painters were kids (such as Beksinski above).

People like Virgil Finlay ( www.bpib.com/illustrat/finlay.htm ) and Lee Brown Coye ( library.morrisville.edu/coye/artwork.html ) a personal fave of mine, both of whom worked on Weird Tales in the 1940's.
Also Patrick Woodroffe ( www.patrickwoodroffe-world.com/ ) in the 1970's I see a lot of Woodroffe in Crayola's work sometimes.. Maybe its coincidence I dont know.

[commandax]

Thought I'd refresh this thread with a mention of the shadowy dreamscapes of Expressionist artist Alfred Kubin (1877-1959, Austria), who is currently being featured in an exhibition of over 100 works on paper at Neue Galerie in New York. The New York Times has a couple of interesting articles and a slide show about him:

"Kubin came of age in Munich in the late 19th century under the influence of Symbolism’s preoccupation with all things ghostly, sexy, weird and decadent. He worked almost exclusively on laptop-size sheets of paper, but despite the restrictive format, his drawings are wildly varied technically and imaginatively. Populated by all kinds of mythic beings, femmes fatales and monsters, they can be hilarious, creepy, scary, otherworldly, earthy and cosmic. Collectively they envision a world that is the opposite of that of modern science and technology: one that is driven by human irrationality, animal instincts and supernatural forces."
www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/arts/design/07john.html
www.nytimes.com/2008/10/16/arts/design/16neue.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/10/15/arts/20081016_KUBIN_SLIDESHOW_index.html

Neue Galerie: www.neuegalerie.org/main.html?langkey=english

"Every Night We Are Haunted By a Dream"


"The Lady on the Horse"


"The Promenade"


"Alpine Dream"


"The Brood"

[sebreg]

Great thread, love your taste in art! I'm a big fan of Friedrich and Bocklin. Not familiar with Kublin, his work looks very interesting, going to have to look him up.

I will post some pictures of one of my favorites (if I can track some down), Philip Curtis, American 20th century who did some beautiful surreal paintings with a flavor of the southwest. Just ordered a book on him, they have quite a few of his paintings at the museum here in Phoenix...

[commandax]

Well, I haven't refreshed this thread in too long... so here I go. Not sure if this was actually an influence for anyone, but it should be! Podkowiński spent most of his creative career as an Impressionist, but switched to Symbolism shortly before his death of tuberculosis at the age of 29.

Władysław Podkowiński - "Szał uniesień"

[thecreep]

Wow another amazing Polish artist. I'm going to have to research him a bit more. Thanks.

One of the artists that always made me think of current lowbrow/pop surrealist art was Parmigianino (meaning "little one from Parma"). His full name was Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola, and was one of the artists that is considered a "Mannerist", but to me is one of the more extreme ones when it came to distortion of the the anatomy.

In this painting "Madonna dal Collo Lungo" or "Madonna of the Long Neck". You can see that the neck is quite longer than it should be as well as the fingers of the Madonna. Even the body of the infant Christ is elongated. Makes me think of artists like Lori Earley and Joshua Clay.

There is also a lot of weird things going on in this painting. For one, it is unfinished. You can see the single column in the background is attached to nothing, yet the base shows multiple columns. A single column was standard for portraits such as as this, but never with an open background that this painting has. The vase also has what looks like a ghost image of the cross, possibly giving a hint to the crucifixion. Many art historians have also said that the body of the infant Christ even looks dead.

Parmigianino was considered one of the most accomplished draftsmen. His skill was not better than Leonardo as far as drawings went, but we have more examples of his drawings that any other artist of this era. There are thousands of his drawings and etchings still intact.

[Jael]

I have one more I'd like to add to the group. I'm surprised he hasn't been mentioned yet: John Singer Sargent (1856-1925). American Painter, mostly a portrait artist. He's been a big influence to Phil Hale and Ashley Wood.








etc. etc.
Got to see a few of his paintings in the museum. Pictures online really don't do them justice.