GARY PANTER AND OUTSIDER ART

Here's my favorite picture of Gary Panter, the amazing artist who did the "Elvis Zombie" picture in my left sidebar. Gary's what you call an "Outsider" artist.

Here's (above) another view of Elvis Zombie, this time darkened and compressed. 

You can see what some of Gary's influences must be: Warhol, Lichtenstein, Picasso, Pollack, underground comics, Punk, Graffiti,  and maybe Leger, Stella, Dufy, Hockney and Basquiet. No doubt I'm missing names. It doesn't matter much because Gary managed to carve out his own style regardless of influence.

Here (above) he tries a crayon look.

Haw! Panter (above) must have been influenced by 3D comics, the way they look before you put the glasses on.

And here's (above) the world as it would appear if we were all made of happy little colored worms..

Ouch! This one hurts! I like Reagan and I hate to see him ridiculed this way. Even so, I simply can't ignore the beautiful technique.  

For those who didn't recognize Basquiat's name (spelled right?), here's an example of his work, above.

I also mentioned Stella. I'm guessing the above picture is his, but there's Lichtenstein and Hockney influences. 

Here's (above) a Leger from 1944. Boy, the roots of Outsider Art go way back, back to Dada in fact.

Despite all its resistance to commerce, Outsider Art also finds its way into fashion photography. I generally prefer happy, cheerful styles but I'm seduced by the cleverness of this approach. It's so...bold!

PICTURES FOR THE LIVING ROOM WALL

 Soon I'll relocate to the farm belt and have the task of decorating the walls of my new house. For that I'll need pictures. I'm considering a big print of Basquiat's "Boy and His Dog" (above).

Also Gary Panter's "Elvis Zombie"...if there are prints of this. Are there?

Or Panter's "O Babaca."

Here's (above) a wall-worthy picture by Tim Burton.

I'd also like to put up caricatures of friends. I already have all the pictures I'll need...except for one. Maybe Mike will let me copy this one (above) that John, Marlo and Kali did of him.

I picture all these works of art in a living room a little like the set for "PeeWee's Playhouse (above)." Nice, huh?

Unfortunately my wife has decorating ideas of her own (gro-o-o-oan!). I swear, men and women are two different species.

She wants a dog, too.

We got along great with our last dogs. They really liked my wife and I. The problem is, they didn't like anyone else.

Even little dogs can be pretty feisty around strangers.

I told this to my wife, and she said what am I talking about...our dogs absolutely loved strangers! Hmmmmm.

THREE OF MY FAVORITE MODERNIST PAINTERS

Here they are, works of three of my favorite contemporary painters. I have more favorites, but these will do for a start.

The first few are by Tim Biskup. You can tell he was influenced by Jim Flora, but his style is still very distinctive. Boy, the picture above is so small that it's impossible to see anything. Better click to enlarge.

What I like about these, apart from their color and design sophistication, is what Ayn Rand might have called their "sense of life." They're happy. They celebrate life. There's no hint of suffering. They're about the light-hearted side of life.

Here's (above) a skull, which is usually meant to symbolize mortality or horror or science. I may be reading something into this that's not there, but what I sense here is an artist who's regarding his own fragile mortality and laughing about it. There's time enough to think about the serious side of death. Here we're made to see the absurdity of it.

The delicate, colorful paper strips are like our thoughts unraveling. Our skull unravels as well. We all see such wonders during our lifetimes, and they're recorded on flimsy strips of paper that eventually unravel and go away. It all reminds me of Macbeth's "Tomorrow and Tomorrow" speech.

Very happy (above). Sexual, but very light and delicate.

This (above) is scary but light-hearted at the same time, as if Biskup were reminding us that our humanity is still intact, in spite of the mechanistic nature of the modern world. Even so, he says we'd better be careful.

Elegant, imaginative, clutter (above). This would make a great book cover for an author like Bradbury or Dahl or Borges.

Here's something by an under-rated artist...Philip Burke. Michael Sporn just did a survey of Burke's work on his blog. See the sidebar for the link.

Poor Woody. His face has aged way in advance of his actual chronological age. Has his mind aged at the same rate? I don't know. My guess is that a younger man lies underneath the aged exterior, but maybe looking that way depressed him so much that he actually took on the behaviors of an older man.

Burke's portrait of Cobain says so much about the price Cobain paid to get where he was.

Burke's sketch (above) of Dianne Sawyer. Look at how saturated the red and purple are.

Last but not least, Gary Panter's "Elvis Zombie." This was a book cover. I'll bet Panter wishes he'd painted a version that was seven feet tall.



I came across this photo of Elvis while I was searching for Panter's painting. It occured to me that this may be the most famous photo of the rock and roll era...what the classic photo of the G.I.s raising the flag at Iwo Jima was for the previous generation.