Educational Media Reviews Online

This is a well-made and informative film about the art scene that developed primarily in California and the West Coast of the United States and Canada following World War II, but is now well represented and is increasingly being appreciated in the rest of the world. A running theme of the movie, however, is that the established art scene in the United States, particularly New York, has yet to embrace or recognize this “lowbrow” art as art.

The film begins with a collage of images of hot rods, surfers, tiki statues, pin-up girls, comic books, etc. that are recognized as the primary subjects of this art. The first section of the film features many lowbrow artists, gallery owners and publishers trying to define lowbrow art. Their general consensus is that lowbrow art is a reaction to high culture art as seen in galleries and museums. They suggest some alternative nomenclature—“no brow” and “new brow”—although the increasingly used “pop surrealism” is more problematic for these artists. There is agreement, however, on the history of this movement. The lowbrow artists discuss how their art reflects their experiences in Post-War, Cold War America and the consumer, comic book, car, and entertainment cultures that were dominant in the 1950s and 60s. While the more established art world and art schools were categorizing art as abstract expressionism, minimalism, conceptual or pop art, which almost demanded the artists’ explanations or the critics’ imprimatur, lowbrow art produced its own unmediated narrative and images.

The strength of this film is its ability to feature so many artists, gallery owners and writers—including Robert Williams, Isabel Samaras, The Pizz, Shag, Anthony Ausgang, Lisa Petrucci, I, Braineater, 12Midnight, Nicole Steen, Vicki M., Doug Nason, Billy Shire, Sherri Cullison, Mike La Vella and Annie Tucker—while, at the same time, showing so much of the art. The filmmakers do this with the use of subtitles throughout the work, thus allowing the talking head experts to continue their very often cogent analyses of the movement while letting the images dominate. The talking heads get their due, but the art is foremost.

The film focuses its attention on the art scene in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Vancouver, and develops the links between this art and music, publishing and the internet, which give it exposure to a public beyond gallery goers.

Technically, this video is well-produced and visually alive and informative; it should be of interest to most people who care about art and modern popular culture.