Lowbrow
Description
Lowbrow, or lowbrow art, is an underground visual art movement that arose in the Los Angeles, California area in the late 1960s. It is a populist art movement with its cultural roots in underground comix, punk music, tiki culture, graffiti, and hot-rod cultures of the street. It is also often known by the name pop surrealism. Lowbrow art often has a sense of humor - sometimes the humor is gleeful, impish, or a sarcastic comment.
Most lowbrow artworks are paintings, but there are also toys, digital art, and sculpture. Read more ↗
Key Artists
Robert Williams
Founding father of the Lowbrow art movement who originated the term in 1979 and launched Juxtapoz magazine in 1994 to champion pop surrealism.
Kenny Scharf
Pioneering East Village and Lowbrow painter whose neon-colored, cartoon-inspired compositions merged street graffiti, pop culture, and surrealism.
Mark Ryden
Widely dubbed the 'Godfather of Pop Surrealism' who elevated Lowbrow aesthetics through meticulously rendered, unsettling juxtapositions of nostalgia and alchemy.
Gary Panter
Key underground cartoonist and painter whose jagged, punk-inspired visual style bridged underground comix and fine art Lowbrow galleries.
Anthony Ausgang
Prominent Lowbrow painter whose 1992 solo show 'Looney Virtues' was the first formal gallery exhibition to present Lowbrow painting as a serious art historical phenomenon.
Famous Artworks
Fun Facts
Robert Williams originally chose the self-deprecating title 'Lowbrow' for his 1979 art book simply because no authorized high art museum would recognize his underground comix and hot-rod inspired paintings.
↗ Source: en.wikipedia.org
To counteract the mainstream art world's refusal to cover Lowbrow and pop surrealist artists, Robert Williams founded Juxtapoz magazine in 1994, which quickly grew to become one of the most widely circulated art magazines in the United States.
↗ Source: en.wikipedia.org