Take Peter Pan out of the pages of the story, put him together with the Old Year or Father Time and giving it a mixture that makes them look like they're captured on a graffitied wall in East LA, is not an easy task. More than a surreal expression, it is an idiosyncratic proposal to bring the most pop from subcultures to the most closed and sophisticated circles of art. And one of the leading travel agents on that route is Todd Schorr.
Thinking about artistic creation and the market dynamics of these cultural consumptions generally referred to a series of references of high intellectual depth and a sophistication in the framework of an exquisite world, out of the courts or palace museums. However, for a long time, the bubble it has opened up to new interactions, characters and references that have taken popular mythology and its creations to a level of sublimation considered refined: the so-called lowbow, and one of its main exponents is undoubtedly Schorr.
Lowbow or pop surrealism describes the underground movement in the visual and plastic art scene. Emerged in the vertiginous 80s in Los Angeles, california. It brings together references from punk, comics and street art. Seek to be playful, rather than reflective or solemn. Alludes to sarcasm and irony, mainly, in the inherent contradictions of the world.
From there it drinks Todd Schorr: a more dedicated and hard-working artist than most of his generation. His ethic is legendary, his production defined by tenacious attention to detail and technical skill. A career so remarkable, that in hindsight it encapsulates a unique and personal vision of a world conjured, in which he establishes an allure surreal by creating ghostly images that mesmerize the viewer in their meticulously painted execution.
HP Lovecrafts Fried Seafood Cart, 1993. Todd Schorr. Photo: Todd Schorr Website
In 2018 he presented two high-profile projects that represent an overview of the extensive work of the artist. One was the complete catalog bringing together 30 years of work, highlighting an ongoing fascination with a world in constant evolution and transition. The book is packed with paintings depicting a combination of abstract cartoon vocabulary channeled through old master techniques.
The other was a museum-sized exhibition that began on the East Coast of the United States. An event with wide appeal that broke attendance records due to its deep, engaging and illuminating imagery.
Todd Schorr also makes The Horsemen of the Apocalypse appear with a technique in his strokes that make us think of the classics that he paints a caricatured Einstein, in his Smurf version, picking mushrooms through a forest full of these images that alter perception.
Liquid Universe, 2016. Todd Schorr. Photo: Todd Schorr Website
In the retrospective exhibition that was titled MOCA Virginia, the artist's influences could be seen, since it was a selection of practically autobiographical works.
“The curators wanted to focus on works that they felt were autobiographical in some way. This can appear in paintings based on early visual influences such as cartoons, monster movies, comics, etc., or in works such as The Amphibian Frontier y Lessons in Ballyhoo, which are based on lived experiences”, said Schorr to the magazine juxtapoz.
“I'm really all over the place with themes, as I'm into so many different things at any given time. However, I return to subjects that I have a special fascination with, such as human evolution and how it relates to all of our many behaviors and assorted obsessions,” he says of his recurrences and inspirations.
Todd Schorr is an artist that is not only worth reviewing, but also allows us to reflect on whether the barrier between so-called high art and pop culture should continue to blur.