Blowhard, Esq. writes:
SHAG (aka Josh Agle), “Her Second Night in the City,” 2013
Click on the image to enlarge.
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Very cool.
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This is awesome.
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Visually impacting. Would you mind explaining the context?
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The context of the painting? The artist? SHAG is a pop commercial artist who began in the late 90s and soon caught the eye of a few Hollywood celebrities who became collectors. Has a very distinctive, retro style. He’s based in Orange County, CA and I first ran into his work at Disneyland, where he was commissioned to do some art for souvenirs. I haven’t seen it, but this documentary looks like it’s worth checking out: http://www.amazon.com/Sophisticated-Misfit-Whoopi-Goldberg/dp/B003LR5BDU
Here’s his website featuring a generous sampling of his work: http://www.shag.com/gallery.html
An on-line store: http://www.shagmart.com
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Reblogged this on Will S.' Sunny Side Blog and commented:
Sweet! Dig that retro style!
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Tiki was huge, at least in SoCal. A friend lived in a dumpy apartment in Brentwood in the 1980s called “The Tiki Arms” that had Tiki decor nailed to the outside of a basic stucco box.
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It had something to do with the War in the Pacific, 1941-45. Every so often, somebody in Los Angeles announces that Tiki Is Back, but it appears permanently dead.
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TASCHEN recently published a huge Tiki tome that I’ve been meaning to pick up: http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/popculture/all/02897/facts.tiki_pop_america_imagines_its_own_polynesian_paradise.htm
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Some thoughts on the Tiki style:
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I really love the whole Tiki/Exotica era, I grew up right at the tail end of it, and I have every reason to believe that it was as much fun as it looked. Steve’s right, every so often someone tries to bring Tiki back, but it always flops, because the ethos that created the whole thing – the Pacific War, the call of far-off exotic places, postwar prosperity, the first frisson of the sexual revolution (before the whole thing, inevitably, went sour), all of these things are as dead as dead can be. Can you imagine today’s collection of SJW lefty scolds, “fat acceptance” feminists, MRA’s, and other professional victims creating anything as playful, visually arresting, and just plain fun as Tiki? I sure can’t.
Some of today’s Hipsters, many of whom secretly wish that they had been born fifty years earlier, sometimes adopt some Tiki effects, but it’s all Cargo-Cult retro (if you’ll pardon the sort-of pun), and it’s all in vain. You can build the fake airfields, put up the Tiki’s, but the plane with Les Baxter and the load of Mai-Tai’s on it ain’t gonna land, baby…
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A-frame, South Seas-themed apartment buildings seem to dot the SoCal landscape, don’t they? A friend of mine lived in one out in Covina, no doubt built during the postwar boom. I grew up around the corner from the Bahooka in Rosemead, which sadly closed a couple years ago but whose interior can be seen in Terry Gilliam’s FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS.
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Some more thoughts on the style, prompted by Dylan’s version of “Christmas Island”:
http://www.mardecortesbaja.com/2009/12/21/christmas-island-%e2%80%94-in-the-heart/
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South Seas exotica comes out during a falling-crime / cocooning climate, for whatever reason. More placid and languid, not too much adventure or danger of encountering the Sublime, in tune with people’s lower energy levels and desire for seclusion in such periods. Gauguin during the late Victorian era, Tiki / Hula dancers / Tales of the South Pacific / Coming of Age in Samoa during the Midcentury, Bali vacations / Polynesian tribal tattoos in the Millennial era.
Eastern and Southeastern Asia in general appeal to folks during periods of cocooning and greater safety. It’s the stable, pamper-yourself flavor of tropical.
The unstable, thrill-seeking flavor comes out during a rising-crime / outgoing climate — Yanamamo: The Fierce People, Romancing the Stone, Raiders of the Lost Ark, “Hungry Like the Wolf.”
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Are you sure that you’re not reading too much into this, Ag?
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Safe bet, he usually reads too much into *everything*.
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This is the same artist as the banner to a certain Facebook group, am I right? Totally fabulous in every way.
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Yup, same dude.
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That Facebook group must be looking for a cocooning. Blahblah8pagesOfRandomShite
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Personally, I enjoy Ag’s work, but he does illustrate P.J. O’Rourke’s statement “Some people are unable to enjoy the simplest pleasures without being thrown into frenzies of analysis”.
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Agnostic’s theory is congruent with it’s emergence post-WWII. The music of the era was certainly sentimental and very tender
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Sort of related to Tiki, any of you guys heard of Shane Glines? (Mildly NSFW.)
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He also did the cover art for 2 Ursula 1000 albums. The sound is equivalent to Shag’s pictures. Retro lounge feel
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