Thursday, March 22, 2007

Art Blogging: Shag

Shag it the chosen name of American illustrator Josh Agle (1962- ). I think that his work could be broadly classed as 'Pop Art'. They are celebrations of American cosmopolitanhood of the 1950s and 60s, an era better known as the Mod movement. Shag was born to a Mormon family in Utah and studied accounting at California State University at Long Beach. He began working as a successful commercial illustrator in the 1990s and had his first solo show in 1997. I love the vibrant, pastel colors of his work, and the free-flowing lines and forms rejoicing in the urbane pleasures of a lost, idealized era.

A Kind of Blue (2002, serigraph).

Desert Polynesia (2003, serigraph).

The Effects of Space Radiation On Man-On-The-Moon Marriages. (2002, serigraph).

3 comments:

LutherPunk said...

I came here because someone had pointed to your post on the Jesus Tomb stuff, but was so pleased to arrive and find a post about Shag. As a long time lover of low brow and pop art, I think Shag has been overlooked by the mainstream art community.

Of course, it could just be that I am overly biased because he does a great deal of tiki-themed art. I have two signed/numbered prints hanging over my fireplace, perfectly framing all the vintage tiki mugs on the mantle.

Nice post.

doodlebugmom said...

Cool. I am liking the blue one!

John said...

I think that I've seen some of Shag's images before, but I hadn't ever really looked at them. Truly marvelous stuff. I may switch the Lempicka of the Week feature in the sidebar over to Shag.