Vintage Sleaze Modern ART Comics - Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art, Social Realism and the Gag Artist face the Penetrating Gaze of the Art Critic!
So by now, hopefully, 200 posts in, that the point of this blog is to show vintage sleaze art really IS art is hopefully clear. If not, what better way to drive it home than to examine the art of the sleaze artist...on his WALL.
Since all artists reflect the times they find themselves, what was happening? The dominant art form was expressionism...even if most folks had no idea what it was. The "real" art world after all consists of 3 curators and an equal number of collectors, and to them Abstract Expressionism ruled the walls, so dominant it was.
Jefferson Machamer, coming from a slightly earlier time, captures direct portraiture and social realism with his dramatic "Angry cigar-smoking Mother-in Law"...yet the modern nude at left seems to point towards the upcoming radical shift in artistic taste.
Bill Kresse reflects powerful abstract expression with his "Untitled (Blurt on a Wall)" monumental image here next. Powerful indeed, and a clear indictment of the post-atomic age!
Bill Wenzel as well must have studied his Art in America magazines...note the striking, bold confidence above one of his cheeky beauties...it even incorporates a crisp, confident signature which dominates the field! Superb!
Dan De Carlo "gets his strokes in" with a beautiful triptych of highly charged erotic figures that both balance and reflect the firm, resilient contours of the rounded spankee's buttocks, while Dave Berg favors a more traditional, realistic "fish" motif which nonetheless perfectly mirrors the fish-like, kissy-face pout of his model. Smart, stylish and outstanding certainly even to his peers.
Al Cramer assembles a modest, yet appropriate group of "debauched delights" clearly intending to show the how relentless pursuit of traditional sins has become institutionalized and accepted by even the most matronly connoisseurs. Can the decline of civilization be far behind?
Pete Wyma was obviously anticipating the imminent Pop Art era, already on the horizon, with a bashful "Marilyn" refusing to return the glare of her portraitist. Brilliant in conception!
And yet, Elkin seems to see a return of the cubist...pure form hovers over the reach of his conquest in a contemporary shadow box frame.
Meanwhile, Homer Provence takes a generalist approach, depicting an assortment of museum masterpieces while subtly placing in the background a seemingly appropriate "thumbs-up" over a stunned art critic's head.
Finally, the stark, empty frame of an anonymous artist not only informs the empty, shallow, vacant gaze of the decade, but predicts the minimal, mature modern art soon to puzzle museum-goers in droves.
SEE DULL TOOL DIM BULB BOOKS HERE
Jim Linderman
