Beautiful Losers, the movie, documents artists and their work from the street scene of the early ’90s. I really enjoyed watching these young artists and was impressed by their courage to live the way they did. Sometimes they slept in sleeping bags at the same studios and galleries to produce and show their creations. It all seemed so very “grungy.” This movie made me think about my educational and intellectual pursuits in graphic design. If my education had been completed through an art academy, I wonder if I would have ended up living in some loft in New York, immersed in a life someway involved with art. The cliche goes that artists live outside of society’s mainstream so they may get an “objective” viewpoint. I wonder if it would have been a very lonely and rather deprived life.
The young artists in Beautiful Losers like Shepard Fairey, Ed Templeton, Margaret Kilgallen (deceased), are now quite famous, successful and, as a collective, influenced fashion, music, art, design, and film. If you link to the sites and view their work, you’ll notice something about it looks familiar although you may not know their names.
On the flip side, take a look at super rich, successful and wealthy artists. Yes they do exist. Just off hand Brice Marden, Anish Kapoor, Takashi Murakami. Ok, Brice Marden actually accumulated most of his wealth in conjunction with his art dealer and through real estate holdings in New York. Still, it was his art that got him started. If you’ve ever gone to Chicago, you’ve enjoyed Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate. I think it’s definitely an icon of that city. Takashi Murakami ultimately created an “art factory” called Kaikai Kiki Co. Ltd. with studios in Tokyo and Long Island City — a major money making machine.
What financial perspective does one get from looking at these artists? Some look homeless and others end-up looking extravagantly wealthy. Ultimately, it’s a universal enigma, right?
Beautiful Losers
http://www.movie666.com/who-are-the-beautiful-losers
http://www.beautifullosers.com
http://ifitshipitshere.blogspot.com/2009/01/beautiful-losers-boxed-catalog-of.html
Wealthy artists:
http://www.artinfo.com/news/photos/2077/19840/
Shepard Fairey
http://www.studionumber-one.com/about/
Anish Kapoor
http://www.icaboston.org/exhibitions/exhibit/kapoor/
Margaret Kilgallen
http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/kilgallen/
Brice Marden
http://www.matthewmarks.com/artists/brice-marden/
Takashi Murakami
http://www.artnet.com/artists/takashi-murakami/
Ed Templeton
http://www.toymachine.com/
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