started to screen print car and motorcycle
club logos on white t-shirts so that the guys
could wear them in the hot summers of
SoCal. Kustom Kulture fashion that manifests
itself in designers like Black Market Art and
Lowbrow Art was the beginning of the casual
attitude towards fashion that stood in stark
contrast to the formal clothing of “squares”
of the ‘50s and ‘60s. While the squares
wore suits and gown, these guys were
sporting leather jackets, white t-shirts with
designs, and denim, which, while not new
was only worn for work. Denim went from
the work day to the fashion runway thanks
to this underground movement. Even the
clothes represented freedom and liberating
from the structured control of the post-war
environment.
Lowbrow Art in Its Modern Form
Pop surrealism has evolved since its
heyday into new forms in its more modern
charm. It invites us to go deeper and look
closer in or even consider dimensions out of
our experience. After breaking away from Ed
Roth, Robert pursued his fine art career and
struggled to make an impact until he was
finally beginning to be shown in some of the
fine art galleries of SoCal and the Bay Area.
Robert Williams also had mentored many of
the young underground and lowbrow artists
that have made the art form popular and to
some greater or lesser degree acceptable.
Although Robert Williams is deeply antiestablishment, many of his students were
trained in fine art schools, the same schools
that frowned upon his sarcastic and satirical
work.
Art is rarely understood in the time in which
it is made. Much like when impressionism
arrived in Paris in the 1870s and reviled the
well-heeled art patrons of the city, Lowbrow
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art needed the context of time to be really
understood. By the 1990s, Williams was
being show in galleries in New York City
and eventually in the Whitney museum
Biennial. Like anything from the underground,
eventually the mainstream gets on board with
effortless cool.
Why is it cool?
Individuality is deep in the seeds of this
artistic movement. The same individuality
that built the custom cars that were on
the roadways in the ‘50s bled through to
the art movement that sprung from it. The
deep seated cool factor not only comes
from its ethos of individual freedom and
libertarian ideals, but also as a revolt from
pre-packaged processed culture (Rat Fink).
Although modernism in its simplicity and
abstract concepts created the banner for the
conceptions. Trendy art like Dia de los
Muertos grew out of the lowbrow art
movement and has a distinctly latin and
southwest flavor that is being slowly
welcomed by the mainstream art world.
Nowadays, this art movement is more
recognized for its willowy and delicate figures
with smooth lines and complex scenes. It’s
also a bit less complicated than older works,
and certainly more digital. Despite a change
in style, lowbrow is still informing art, still
telling a story and sending a message to
which we can all relate.
`Lowbrow Art in Tattooing
In the dark ages, before the modern advent
of tattoo culture, tattoos were something
sailors and old military men had. Millions of
young men had gotten tattoos going to or
coming from a war theatre in World War II.
The body art was a statement, a reminder
of life, love, and the pursuit of happiness
which included the “good time girls” (read:
prostitutes) that plied the oldest profession
near the military installations of the American
war effort.
Modern tattooing has come a long way
and the modern styles have lowbrow art to
thank for elements like complex shading,
use of color, and the 3D effect. Although
modern abstract art maybe be uninviting
to the average viewer, the cartoonish and
outlandish styles of lowbrow art leads to
the eclectic pieces that decorate fine tattoo
collectors. Although getting a tattoo has
become very democratic, especially if you’re
under 35, it is still a quiet underground
act of protest. It is the ultimate form of
customization and an innate form of protest
not only against mainstream culture, but
against nature itself.
counterculture of the ‘60s, lowbrow was what
really informed the movement of culture that
was in the air in California. If people are free
why should they fight in foreign wars they
had no say in starting like Vietnam? Why
should the people submit to what they are
told to do, wear, say, drive or do with their
lives? Kustom Kulture wasn’t just cars, it
was a lifestyle, it was a way of being and to
certain people in power, a very dangerous
way of being that had to be stopped.
Lowbrow Art and the Runway
Lowbrow art also created the screenprinted
t-shirt that is now one of the main ways tattoo
culture articulates its artistic vision. Thanks
to people like Lowbrow Art Company and
Black Market Art Company, the unique tattoo
culture and motif is now a major player in the
burgeoning world of street fashion. Ed Roth
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