Tag: Blog Post 6

Wes Wilson:

Wes Wilson is considered the father of 1960s rock concert poster and the first psychedelic poster artist. He translated signs and sounds of counterculture society into psychedelic iconography, leading his posters to be wildly experimental.

One of the prominent features of his style was his freehand lettering. While his typography was influenced by the Viennese Secessionist lettering of Alfred Roller, he expanded outlines and inset shapes, largely altered the style to fit his own ambitions. His other major breakthrough was the use of colour. Inspired by light shows of concerts, he mixed colours with wild abandon, resulting in visuals that perfectly captured the revolutionary essence of music that his art promoted. In addition, he also played with the foregrounds and backgrounds, creating design patterns that became increasingly exaggerated with each new creation. This combination of nearly cryptic letters that filled every available space, lines that melted into lines, and colours that clashed is how the psychedelic poster was born.

Continue reading “Departures and Rumblings: Wes Wilson (b. 1927)”

Henri Rousseau:

Henri Rousseau was a French artist who is best known for his richly coloured and meticulously detailed works of lush jungle scenes, wild beasts, and exotic figures. His success mainly lies within his background as a self-taught artist and through this, he became the archetypal naive artist. Rousseau’s style showed his lack of academic training and amateurish techniques, such as incorrect proportions, one point perspective, use of sharp unnatural colours, and unusual compositions. His works were made fun of criticized by contemporary critics, but he earned respect of modern artists who admired him for revealing “new possibilities of simplicity”. For example, Surrealists, who valued surprising juxtaposition and dream-like mood characteristics, celebrated Rousseau’s art as they found these aspects in his art. Henri’s Rousseau created modern and unconventional renderings of traditional genres, imbuing them with a sense of mystery and eccentricity.

Continue reading “Impressionism and Post-Impressionism: Henri Rousseau (1844-1910)”