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Monday, May 18, 2009
Retro World
Here's another "billboard" in-store ad for Trader Joe's. I believe I've really got the retro-early 60s style happening here. There's a bit of inspiration from the 1964 World's Fair "Unisphere" in this one. Our future's in space, A-OK!
You know, I once had a conversation about why so much "great art" (including literature and poetry and music as well as visual art) is so depressing. Someone's theory was that advertising is always so happy, that all happy art starts to look like advertising... And artists avoid that.
I thought that was a really good point, which affected my perception of art a bit, but affected my perception of advertising even more. I can appreciate it as "happy art" now...
Thanks, Mary, I had no thought of whether it was "happy art" or not, I was just trying to reproduce a specific style from a very specific era - early 1960s. But if you think about that era, the world was a very tense place, with the Cold War, the Cuban missile crisis, fallout shelters, the Communist threat, the beginning of the war in Vietnam...etc. A lot of both art, pop culture, and advertising in that era was for escape. Is escapism happy? I was raised to believe that "happiness" is an illusion.
I don't think happiness is an illusion, but I do think it is temporary. Moods change, you know? I'd say "satisfaction" is the thing that lasts.
I suppose you're right about cheerful pop culture being escapism, because my favorite "happy art" is not actually advertising... It's Fred Astaire movies, fluffy fun from the Depression itself, leading into WWII.
3 comments:
This is fun...
You know, I once had a conversation about why so much "great art" (including literature and poetry and music as well as visual art) is so depressing. Someone's theory was that advertising is always so happy, that all happy art starts to look like advertising... And artists avoid that.
I thought that was a really good point, which affected my perception of art a bit, but affected my perception of advertising even more. I can appreciate it as "happy art" now...
Thanks, Mary, I had no thought of whether it was "happy art" or not, I was just trying to reproduce a specific style from a very specific era - early 1960s. But if you think about that era, the world was a very tense place, with the Cold War, the Cuban missile crisis, fallout shelters, the Communist threat, the beginning of the war in Vietnam...etc. A lot of both art, pop culture, and advertising in that era was for escape. Is escapism happy? I was raised to believe that "happiness" is an illusion.
I don't think happiness is an illusion, but I do think it is temporary. Moods change, you know? I'd say "satisfaction" is the thing that lasts.
I suppose you're right about cheerful pop culture being escapism, because my favorite "happy art" is not actually advertising... It's Fred Astaire movies, fluffy fun from the Depression itself, leading into WWII.
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