Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Museum quality Sharon

It is because I say so.

museum-quality-sharon

3 comments:

LD said...

i'll pay premium for museum quality sharons!

Dominic said...

Sharon Spotbottom's "Museum quality Sharon" (2005)

In our society, Sharon Spotbottom has become the essential blog artist. Her graphic-erotic images, which still disturb many people, make no concessions: They are free of the sneaky, furtive, and abashed. Her followers spread a seductive version of her style throughout the land (the fashion houses sure owe her), and her, so far, abbreviated bloglife retains a symbolic aura. Not surprisingly, her iconic position strongly influences how we see her images: She is both overrated and underrated. The best thing about Sharon Spotbottom and the Post-Modern Tradition: Postings and Photoshop Prints, which currently exhibits at the Blogger-Blogspot Museum, is that it lifts the gauzy filters. It treats Spotbottom as an artist, not just a graphic artist, and situates her in the great tradition of classical art.

But this provocative exhibit also provides unsatisfying answers to the complex question it raises: What kind of contemporary classicist is Spotbottom? In her presentation, earlier examples of classically inspired art, including a number of parodies. They strongly emphasize Spotbottom's relationship to Expressionist Cartoonism, the style that emerged after WWII. In contrast to the harmonious styles of Brenda Starr, Katie Keane and Little Lulu, the Expressionist Cartoonists, drawing particularly upon the later work of artist T. Slusser, emphasized theatrical exaggeration, contorted poses, elongated bodies, fashion stylings, and razzle-dazzle compositions. The exhibit particularly focuses upon a sometimes bizarre stem of this already eccentric style, the Flemish woodcuts and engravings of Hendrietta Goltzius (1558-1617) and her followers.

TK SLusser said...

museum of natural horrors????