Tadanori Yokoo, Made In Japan, silk screen, 1998.(Images Courtesy Of University of Chicago Libraries.)Critics trying to sum up the work of artist Tadanori Yokoo have called him, "The Japanese Andy Warhol." That's like calling James Joyce, "The Irish Dr. Seuss." Both artists use silk-screen techniques to create prints, and that's where the similarity ends. Warhol's clear, linear, flat, and repetitive surfaces have a visceral visual impact. The eye instantly recognizes and grasps the content, often a colorful take on an already iconic image. Throw away all of that pop-art kapow, replace it with chaos, complexity, commotion, clutter, and more layers...
Archive’s Inflammatory Christmas Tree Ignites Controversy
One Of The Tate's Typically Atypical Christmas Trees"Shelving Unit Tree" Created By Richard Wilson, 1998. (All Photos Courtesy Of The Tate Library And Archive.)Every year since 1988 the Tate Archive and Library in London has commissioned an important contemporary artist to decorate a Christmas Tree for display in its grand rotunda. The avant-garde artists' outlandish takes on the traditional symbol of yuletide gaiety have frequently caused consternation, but this year's tree has sparked a scandal like never before."Blue Neon Light Tree," Created By Catherine Yass, 2000.Before revealing the source of this year's unprecedented uproar, a brief peek at the precedent...
"I Am A Seller of Used Ideas"
A mock invitation card to the 1970 Oz obscenity trial over the'Schoolkids Issue'with a note on the back from Richard Neville,one of the co-editors,saying that he was on his way to court.The Judge said that his co-accused Felix Denniswas too thick to warrant a long custodial sentence.Carl Williams, who heads up the Counterculture division of Maggs Bros. modern department, has curated an eclectic spread of over a hundred posters, illustrations, propaganda pamphlets for Maggs Gallery’s current exhibit, Please Do Not Bend.He recently sat down with Daven Wu of The Sixties for an interview about the exhibition and his job, which...
Winslow Homer and the Women of “The New Novel”
The New Novel. Watercolor, 1877.In 1877, Winslow Homer exhibited his watercolor, The New Novel, at an exhibition of the American Watercolor Society.It is an image that below its surface of innocent, leisurely repose churns a contemporary cultural scene fraught with change and fear; the culture-war in the U.S. had begun.“...Avoid also all those miserable sensational...novels and illustrated papers which are so profusely scattered around on every side. The demand which exists for such garbage speaks badly for the moral sense and intellectual training of those who read them...The extent to which the press is used in the publication of romance...
Old School Daze Book Jackets Updated, Now Hip n’ Cool
Book City Jackets' Artist Series 2, groupRemember those plain Kraft brown paper dust jackets from grammar and junior high school? (Your memory may have to stretch back to the 1950s-1960s).Book City Jackets' Standards grouping: Fiction, Non-Fiction, FavoriteWe used to have fun doodling on them, drawing, writing notes, declarations of everlasting love, paeans to rotten teachers, doggerel, and all manner of personal expression.Book City Jackets "Fiction"They, alas, fell by the wayside, along with the mimeograph machine, replaced by DJs with school logo and branded characters. Glossy-coated, they were impossible to write on or customize.Customize to protect and serve!Book City Jackets, founded...