Product DescriptionThe greatest cultural accomplishments in history have never been the result of the brainstorms of marketing men, corporate focus groups, or any homogenized methods; they have always happened organically. More often than not, these manifestations have been the result of a few like-minded people coming together to create something new and original for no other purpose than a common love of doing it. In the 1990s, a loose-knit group of American artists and creators, many just out of their teens, began their careers in just such a way. Influenced by the popular underground youth subcultures of the day, such as skateboarding, graffiti, street fashion, and independent music, artists like Shepard Fairey, Mark Gonzales, Spike Jonze, Margaret Kilgallen, Mike Mills, Barry McGee, Phil Frost, Chris Johanson, Harmony Korine, and Ed Templeton began to create art that reflected the lifestyles they led. Many had no formal training and almost no conception of the inner workings of the art world. They learned their crafts through practice, trial and error, and good old-fashioned innovation. Not since the Beat Generation have we seen a group of creative individuals with such a unified aesthetic sense and varied cultural facets. The world of art has been greatly affected by their accomplishments as have the worlds of fashion, music, literature, film, and, ironically, athletics. Beautiful Losers is a retrospective celebration of this spirit, with hundreds of artworks by over two dozen artists, from precursors like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring, and Larry Clark, to more recent adherents Ryan McGinniss, KAWS, and Geoff McFetridge. Work in all conceivable mediums is included, plus reproductions of reams of ephemera. The accompanying essays are contributed by a half-dozen writers who have championed these beautiful losers from the start. This paperback reprint includes more pages, more images, an exhibition checklist, installation shots from a variety of exhibitions, and an interview with Beautiful Losers advocate, Agnes B.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - its good to be a loser
ok- this book is pretty brilliant... despite the fact that the artwork included is a catalogue of some of the most important, interesting and (previously- time will tell??) underground /fringe dwelling artists and contemporary contributors in the last 25 or so years and that in itself is reason enough to love this book, you would be CRAZY not to read the essays... they are insane- so brilliant and you are not even touching the surface of this book unless you read them..
if you have any interest ... Read More
Rating: - Beautiful loosers Beautiful Book
If you like street and pop art... I kindly raccomend this book to you!
Peace and 420!
Rating: - THE BOOK NEVER CAME.
I ordered this book from Amazon as a graduation gift and it says that it will ship in 1-4 weeks. BEWARE! I placed my order in mid-May and received a third delay notice today saying that it will not ship until mid-August. BOLLOCKS!! I finally canceled my order, as my "happy graduation" note is no longer applicable and my guy will likely be in school for the fall semester by the time the book actually arrives.
Rating: - A Historicly important exhibition catalog with great essays.
Beautiful Losers exhibition is a document of an epoch centered on the twenty year history of street art and culture from the walls of urban landscapes across America to the walls of the dopest west and east coast galleries. Really great essays. Read the one by McCormick, its especially good. Well printed and designed. Everything in this book is imperative to know about if you are an artist, especially young artists in their formative years.
Rating: - Great pictures, great read
Its definately worth $25.17, or whatever price theyve stuck on it by now. Its includes pictures of, and interesting stories about a few of the Beautiful Losers aswell as full pages of artwork (in color). Its no picture book either, in addition to the stories, its got the histories of various subcultures that influenced the artists (skateboarding, graffiti, etc.) So it'll keep you busy for a minute.
- its good to be a loser
- THE BOOK NEVER CAME.
