H I G H C U L T U R E
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LOW CULTURE
Alexander Rodchenko
I think Rodchenko's graphic design and association with the Constructivist movement is an example of graphic design for low culture. Everyones favourite politician Stalin rose into power and rid Russia of the previous avant-garde Consructivist movement and took it from stuff like this, to this. Art wasn't individual and forward thinking anymore, it was for the state, for churches etc like it used to be hundreds of years prior. It also had a social purpose, as did constructivism. It was aiming at all of society, including the lower class.
"Our duty is to experiment"
“In order to educate man to a new longing, everyday familiar objects must be shown to him with totally unexpected perspectives and in unexpected situations. New objects should be depicted from different sides in order to provide a complete impression of the object."
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol is someone that I definitely think is associated with low culture but deliberately so, he almost criticises high art and high culture with his designs based on pop culture and advertisements, banal things we see day in and day out. More so in the present day, even more so than in Warhol's day.
"An artist is somebody who produces things that people don't need to have."
"I love Los Angeles. I love Hollywood. They're beautiful. Everybody's plastic, but I love plastic. I want to be plastic."
"I'd asked around 10 or 15 people for suggestions. Finally one lady friend asked the right question, 'Well, what do you love most?' That's how I started painting money."
"I've decided something: Commercial things really do stink. As soon as it becomes commercial for a mass market it really stinks."
Damien Hirst
I regard Damien Hirst as an artist involved in high culture and a more upper-class view of art. His work is collected by rich upper class individuals such as Charles Saatchi, his work's been exhibited round the world and I'm pretty sure he's the richest living artist in the world today. A lot of his work is sculpture/fine art based but he's also done a more graphic design approach to his work. Such as the following..
"I think suicide is the most perfect thing you can do in life."
"It'd be nice to make lots of money but it's quite difficult, because every time I make lots of money I make a bigger piece that costs lots of money."
"I think an ashtray is the most fantastically real thing."
Stefan Sagmeister
Sagmeister is a graphic designer with quite a post-modern aesthetic with immense experimentation and exploration with type and image, Sagmeister's work has also often took quite a high-brow approach, to fully 'appreciate' it and some would say it's quite 'pretentious' and overcooked. He's also had several exhibitions.
"You can have an art experience in front of a Rembrandt… or in front of a piece of graphic design."
“It is very important to embrace failure and to do a lot of stuff — as much stuff as possible — with as little fear as possible. It’s much, much better to wind up with a lot of crap having tried it than to overthink in the beginning and not do it.”
Banksy
I think Banksy is an interesting example as he's widely known as a street artists, under anonymity who produced wall stencils mocking society, stereotypes and pop culture but the idea and connotations of street art/graffiti makes it low culture in my view. Yet Banksy recently has held exhibitions, selling his work and often gaining fans in famous celebrities buying his work for many thousands of pounds. In my view once someone exhibits in an art gallery he starts to become more engrossed in high culture.
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