Dumb Luck: The Idiotic Genius of Gary Baseman - Hardcover

Pao & Paws

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0811844234 ISBN 13: 9780811844239

Publisher: Chronicle Books, 2004

Synopsis

Mucking up the pages of the New Yorker, the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Forbes, the Atlantic Monthly, Blab, and more, Gary Baseman has populated the finest publications with his inimitable brand of illustration. Now Dumb Luck, presents the first complete collection of his work, spanning more than ten years. According to Baseman himself, his art inhabits "that muddy spot where the line between genius and stupidity has been smudged beyond recognition." Dark and dopey, hokey and heartbreaking, his world is populated with freaky folks, maimed bunnies, weird wiener dogs, and anthropomorphic ice-cream cones that yearn and burn just like we do. Baseman's particular genius lies in capturing those ridiculous and all-too-often appalling aspects of being human. Hilarious testimony to the mind of its creator, Dumb Luck is both an art manifesto and a raw celebration of idiocy.

About this title

About the Author

Pao & Paws is an award-winning creative agency based in Taipei, Tokyo, New York, and London.

Reviews

Eradicating the boundary between sick and silly, Baseman’s paintings and illustrations inhabit a world of cute-and-cuddly depravity. Populated by goofy, wide-eyed dogs, winking devils and decapitated clowns, each work is a self-contained narrative of cartoon mayhem, each character a collision of the adorable and the grotesque. Even Baseman’s more mainstream work, including the designs for the popular "Cranium" board game and his Emmy Award-winning animated series, Teacher’s Pet, engender a freak-show fascination, a lingering hint of the Grand Guignol. That the few (and refreshingly brief) essays sprinkled throughout this massive monograph should belabor these less-than-subtle contrasts ad nauseam is hardly surprising. Even the artist himself avers that his work is about "smudging the line between genius and stupidity beyond recognition." After all, since the visual language of cartoons is his primary tool, simple oppositions and immediate, gruesome gags are a prerequisite. This is not to imply that Baseman’s work is trite or disposable. Although he wears his influences on his sleeve, serving up healthy portions of Looney Tunes, underground comix, Charles Addams and Red Grooms, these reference points lend each image an eerie familiarity. His characters (not to mention the blazing primary colors in his compositions) are vivid, outlandish and genuinely funny. A cheerful, peg-legged bunny holding a rabbit-foot keychain is hilarious by any standard. And therein lies this volume’s greatest virtue: the text is downright minimal, leaving ample room for hundreds of large, richly colored illustrations. In this case, each picture is truly worth a thousand words.
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Baseman is an acclaimed gallery artist and a successful illustrator. His distinctively off-kilter work is familiar to readers of the New Yorker and many other mainstream publications, and his profile was significantly raised a few years ago when he created the animated kids' show Teacher's Pet. The disparate, intertwined facets of the prolific Baseman are all on view in this bountiful collection. The wildly loopy paintings and drawings--influenced by Warner Brothers cartoons, vintage comic strips, Hieronymus Bosch, Day of the Dead artifacts, and Japanese pop art--display obsessively recurring figures: crimson cats with phallic noses, cuddly devils, spiral-necked hounds, fez-sporting skeletons, and characters that are simply unrecognizable or indescribable. Their visceral impact is heightened by Baseman's vivid, sometimes jarring colors and bold, simple designs. The overall effect veers from cuddly to off-putting, usually within the same work. Somewhat creepy and frequently sexual, Baseman's quirky critters are ultimately harmless and oddly inviting. This dazzling volume attests to Baseman's success at breaking boundaries between fine art and mass media. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Chronicle Books
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0811844234
• ISBN 13: 9780811844239
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 336