“It
cuts through the human condition to the soul, it works on many levels, it does not talk down to people.”
Gary Baseman on his art style.
“Lust
and Desire – everything comes from that,” says artist Gary Baseman about the underlying
themes in his work. Staying consistent with those subjects, he yet manages to manifest them in so many
different ways.
Baseman’s art has been described as many things, but
certainly not boring. In our time of constant exposure to so many other media, “… art needs to be iconic
and quick to stay competitive and engage you,” says Baseman. It needs to be perceived everywhere, in
keeping with the concept of Pervasive Art. Baseman calls this the appropriate art for these times.
No
matter what medium is used as blank canvas for creative expression, the message and quality of the art
becomes more important than where it is actually seen, making the boundaries between high and low art
not as clear-cut as before. And he has used many different media - most notably his Dunny vinyl figures,
produced by American company Kid Robot; the art for the board game, Cranium; and the cartoon, Teacher’s
Pet.
Before Baseman started his prolific artistic career, he was a Communication
Science major, studying the First Amendment. To this day the conviction that he should be able “to tell
any kind of story or allegory not censoring myself,” still runs deep. With a background in illustration
design, he certainly knows how to tell a compelling story via a strong visual image.
Influenced
by the imagery of cartoons of the 30s and 40s, his paintings and illustrations at first appear naïve,
cute and utterly disarming. The Happy Idiot snowman is all smiles and sweet, little Chou Chou runs merrily
about the forest. Only at a second glance does one fully comprehend the “bittersweetness that is life”
that Baseman has captured in surreal and often perverse settings.
Always
on the go, and just back from Art Basel Miami Beach where he checked out his friend Mark Ryden’s latest
work, he has still managed to launch his latest vinyl toy, the White HotChaCha and participate in the
antiwar art show “? the War” at the Corey Helford Gallery, L.A. With all these balls in the air, he
has, however, still not quite reached his ultimate goal yet - to launch a creative art company.
Link:
www.garybaseman.com
