Lowbrow Art

Lowbrow art is a contemporary underground art movement, a characteristic feature of which is the artistic and technical eclecticism of such styles and phenomena as surrealism, primitivism, pop art, comics, punk rock, and youth subcultures. Originated in the late 1970s in Los Angeles. The author of the term is Robert Williams. Its art forms are painting, graphics (illustration), sculpture, digital art. From the sketches of pop surrealists, they are repelled in the creation of children’s toys and interiors (wallpaper, lamps, furniture fittings).

From English lowbrow – poorly educated. But the definition does not characterize the work of artists at all. Despite their aesthetic naivety, the creations are characterized by painstaking work. One feels the author’s knowledge of academic rules (the artist observes aerial and linear perspectives, chiaroscuro). We observe exaggerated forms, for example, the enlarged head of the protagonist, surrealistic plots, for example, the communication of a person with animals (many paintings from afar resemble Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland). The arrangement of objects in the composition and the color palette refer us to comics. The composition is cluttered with various objects. The semantics of the style is expressed in the confident self-identification of the artist, in self-irony, in black humor.

Key artists: Robert Williams, Kenny Scharf, Mark Ryden, Luc Chue.

Key works:

In Ecstasy. 1982. Kenny Scharf.

Christina. 1998. Mark Ryden.

Bloobzibloopzibloop. 2000. Kenny Scharf. (sculpture)

southpaw. 2006. Luke Chue.

Cateyeguy. 2008. Kenny Scharf. (sculpture)

Chroma Structure. 2015. Mark Ryden.