Beautiful Losers

by Aaron Rose, Christian Strike, Alex Baker, Arty Nelson, Jocko Weyland, Mike Mills (Contribution by), Barry McGee (Contribution by), Margaret Kilgallen (Contribution by), Ryan McGinness (Contribution by), Harmony Korine (Contribution by), Ed Templeton (Contribution by), Chris Johanson (Contribution by), Shepard Fairey (Contribution by)

Overview

The 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 McGinness, 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781933045306
Publisher:	D.A.P./Iconoclast
Publication date:	10/15/2005
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 11.00(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Harmony Korine was born in Bolinas, California in 1974. At 19, he wrote the screenplay for Kids, directed by Larry Clark, and later wrote and directed Gummo, which won awards at the Venice and Rotterdam film festivals, and Julian Donkey-Boy, which won an award for best art direction at the Gijon International Film Festival in Spain. He is the author of the novel A Crack Up at the Race Riots.

The self-taught San Francisco-based artist Chris Johanson was born in 1968. His work has appeared at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and in the 2002 Whitney Biennial in New York, and he has had solo shows at SITE Santa Fe, the UCLA Hammer Museum, the Jack Hanley Gallery in San Francisco and Deitch Projects in New York. His work has been covered in the New York and Los Angeles Times, Vice, Black Book, Tokion, Paper, Interview and the New Yorker.

Born in San Francisco in 1966, Barry McGee took the tag name "Twist" when he started drawing in the streets in the mid-80s. Some of the more conventional locations where his work has been exhibited include the 2001 Venice Biennale; the Drawing Center, New York; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Growing up, Mike Mills was sure he was going to be a pro skater. Then he got into Cooper Union, found an internship at the groundbreaking design firm, M&Co., and began the design work that would lead to the famous X-Girl logo; skateboard graphics for Supreme, Stereo and Subliminal; scarves and fabrics for Marc Jacobs; fashion related graphics for Esprit and The Gap; Sonic Youth album covers; and a slew of music video directing credits including the Beastie Boys, Beck and Air.Several independent shorts later, he has set up shop with Roman and Sophia Coppola at The Directoris Bureau. In 2005 his first feature, an adaptation of Walter Kirnsis novel Thumbsucker,was released.

"Ed Templeton was born in Orange County, California, in 1972. His parents divorced when he was eight. At age 13 he was introduced to skateboarding, which he credits with changing the course of his life forever. With a month left of high school, he dropped out to start skateboarding professionally in 1990. Soon after, his first trip to Europe significantly changed his worldview, clarifying a love/hate relationship with his hometown that continues to be a source for his work. Templeton started Toy Machine Bloodsucking Skateboard Company in 1993. His first solo exhibition took place in 1994 at Aaron Rose's Alleged Gallery in New York. In 1995 he took up photography in earnest. His first book of photographs, Teenage Smokers, 1999, from Alleged Press, won the $50,000 first prize in the 2000 "Search for Art" in Milan. In 2002 his second book of photographs, The Golden Age of Neglect, was published by Drago in conjunction with an exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris. More recently, his work was featured in the bestselling Beautiful Losers, published by Iconoclast. Templeton currently lives and works in Huntington Beach, California, and continues to exhibit, run Toy Machine and skate professionally."

Aaron Rose is an international curator and independent writer. His books include the best-seller, Beautiful Losers and Out & About by Ari Marcopoulos.