The Beautiful Losers.
“A bunch of us used to hang out in this little storefront on the
Lower East Side that, y’know, we called it a ‘gallery’ but it wasn’t
really a gallery, it was more of, like, a party spot”
Who are the people behind the Beautiful Losers? Are they simply street artists, or really
just a bunch of kids? Many can simply agree on calling them simply losers, but as for me, the
only word that could describe such a group could be, artists.
These people were always do-it-yourself people. No one was doing it, so they did it. As
even they themselves say, “When you come from a culture that was made for kids, by kids you
had to do it yourself, because there was nobody else doing it.” (Aaron Rose)
Not that they really were, all kids, it was more of…adults who hadn’t lost something.
Something that we as a culture cannot provide for the individual man…it’s like; a bad thing to
not really grow up, and keep the eccentricity a child can produce. Whoever said finger painting
isn’t art must’ve never met a beautiful artist.
“I think as a child you are always drawing, coloring, and doing
crafts, and that is totally normal, and seems to be like what you do
as a kid. And I think what the- kinda the weird tragedy is when you
become an adult you “grow up” and loose that, you like stop
creating you just stop involving yourself in the joy of coloring and
creating and stuff…and I just feel like I was lucky enough to
never really loose that.” (Ed Templeton)
Brought together, these artists began in a small run-down building on the desolate
Ludlow Street in the lower-east side of New York. Across from the only scenery of a bar named
Max Fish, and amidst a sprawl of clubs, they settled in for a time to remember. Together these
some-what twenty artists created the “Alleged” gallery.
2:
“It was an alleged gallery, not really a gallery.” (Aaron Rose) Named after alleged good
luck candles sold in Puerto Rican grocery stores, the building, amidst the slummy washed up
neighborhood, began in 1992. Aaron Rose actually owned the small neglected chunk of brick
and stone, gathering the artists together as one…and starting something he couldn’t imagine the
results of.
Many of these artists knew nothing of the art world, or had any professional lessons on
how to do it. Many of them didn’t even consider their gallery a gallery.
“I always thought of the gallery more like a record label than
something in the art world,” Aaron Rose recalls, “It was an
attitude, it was a punk gallery. I wasn’t thinking about auctions or
art collections. There were no collectors. The first time we sold a
drawing for $20 and I was just totally blown away that somebody
actually bought it.”
Combining the influences of indie rock, hip-hop and street oriented sports such as skateboarding,
they attracted some very inventive people.
Many considered them, nerds or freaks. But what you must realize is that some of those
people are in fact, incredible people. Just because they were tagged with a word doesn’t mean
they aren’t some of the most beautiful inhabitants to exist. I believe that the most inventive and
successful people in life, were once in fact losers themselves.
“To go from like being just a regular freak to being like a cool
freak is kind of - it’s really nice.” (Cheryl Dunn)
For years and years they were ignored by the higher establishment, kinda like kids being
forced out of segregation. Like all things, it just needed time…it’s not like they grew over-night
or anything. Treated like children in the art world, it wasn’t as if they were even really the
3:
popular kids. Although great artists, many had no master’s degree or any flashy four year
education diplomas, (even though some did,) they still wouldn’t be invited to tea time at a rich
parlor in art-central. Their education had to deal with culture and pop, and even the streets that
served as their art pad and inspiration. Nothing, anyone who was actually at that tea party, could
appreciate.
Art isn’t really appreciated by many people in our culture either. In the states, artists
aren’t as much of an influence as most anywhere else, people would much rather visit the zoo or
an amusement park for the fiftieth time than enter an art gallery. You can talk about someone,
who in the art world is extremely important, and not most anyone could tell you who they are, or
what they’ve created. The U.S. has simply pushed it out and made art create its own world and
its own place to reside.
But like they teach you in science class, the mark of these artists diffused like a strange
scent of perfume through a broom closet. It seemed as if, during their peak, the “Alleged” gallery
was booming with people all the time. Packed in and there to see the newest additions of photos,
and films, and paintings and pictures, people from all over ate up the time from when the doors
opened at 6 p.m. until the party was broken up at midnight.
Although it was a successful ten years of the evolution to many young artists, the
“Alleged” gallery ended in 2002.
The gallery inspired many people and many things, including the documentary Beautiful
Losers. Inspired itself by the title of a 1960’s book, this takes a delve into the lives of the people
behind the “Alleged” gallery.
“I wanted to tell a personal story and pepper it with history, rather
than tell a historical story and pepper it with something personal,”
4:
Rose states in an interview about the film. “The film is not so
much about the art as it is about the people.”
So who was in the gallery? Quite a few people actually, including – Mark Gonzales, Ed
Templeton, Thomas Campbell, Diann Bauer, Jeremy Henderson, Glen E. Friedman, David Aron,
Daniel Higgs, Aaron Rose, Phil Frost, Spike Jonze, Andy Jenkins, Sofia Coppola, Andre Razo,
Chris Johanson, Tobin Yelland, Ari Marcopolis, Barry McGee, Margaret Killgalen, Mike Mills
Shepard Fairy, Tom Sach, Cheryl Dunn, Ivory Serra, Shelter Serra, and Susan Cianciolo. Over
one hundred artists were featured in the “Alleged” gallery.
Although you may not have heard some or any of these artists, you have probably seen
their art – such as Andre the Giant posters by Shepard Fairey, the graphic design and commercial
work of Mike Mills and Geoff McFetridge, and perhaps the amateurism of Chris Johanson,
Margaret Kilgallen and Barry McGee. Several of these artists today design for various
companies including DC shoes.
The artists that stuck out most to me most where,
Barry McGee Painting on mostly found objects such as empty liquor bottles, decaying old
books, and discarded signs, this artist has more of a cartoonish style. Although very poetic, what
I can tell from looking at his art is that although he chooses a sort of abstract style, he could pull
off realism incredibly well. Though his wife has now passed on, he has an eight-year-old
daughter named Asha.
Margaret Kilgallen Is married to another artist Barry McGee. Their styles are somewhat similar
but still separate and original. Kilgallen died 2001 from complications due to breast cancer after
choosing to forgo treatment to save her then unborn daughter Asha. Although mostly
concentrated in murals, her tag names are known as “Meta” and “Matokie Slaughter”.
5:
Mike Mills “and we were pretty…stupid - and great, I mean - awesomely dumb.” After
watching and reading interviews with Mike Mills, I am certain he is truly a Beautiful Loser. With
a unique voice, personality, and style, Mills certainly stands out. Of all the pictures I’ve seen of
him, he always wears a suit, and laughs to make his life just a little bit more interesting. He, like
many of the other artists have moved on into bigger things, such as The Thumbsucker, a movie
he’s recently directed.
Of all the artists I’ve been forced to study in school, this group has to be the best. People
from all over, just painting together, and creating art in the studio, and doing what they could do
best – Living. For a while it seems, that to me, the routine we go through every day, has a way of
getting to you. It has a way of pushing in and making things boring, and overrated. But since I’ve
thought and learned of such an amazing group, I realize now, that it’s okay to live…because
things just get grayer and grayer the more you put off living each day.
To me, the Beautiful losers were what made me think of street art as something more.
More than just tagging or a poor person’s suffice for a canvas. It was like, they were creating a
world, where instead of seeing slummy streets and filthy bricks, it was like walking into a
gallery. I guess you could call it, fascination – what I thought when I researched these people.
It’s not like they were always defacing buildings and parking lots either, they had a gallery. A
real life gallery untouched by the frail fingers of the “art world”. A place, where it wasn’t so bad
to be… a kid.
“You can’t tag me as a one thing or another, you can’t tag almost
anybody as just a painter, as just a photographer, we’re just – we’re
just artists.”
6:
REFERENCES
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Visitor, . "Posts Tagged 'alleged gallery'." shelflife by visitor. Web. 10 Dec 2009.
<http://www.visitordesign.com/shelflife/?tag=alleged-gallery>.
"Alleged Gallery: Encyclopedia." AllExperts. Web. 10 Dec 2009.
<http://en.allexperts.com/e/a/al/alleged_gallery.htm>.
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artloversnewyork. 13 May 2005. Web. 10 Dec 2009.
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Olsen, Mark. "'Losers' who really made their mark." Galleries (2008): n. pag. Web. 10 Dec 2009.
<http://articles.latimes.com/2008/aug/24/entertainment/ca-loser24>.
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Dollar, Steve. "'Beautiful Losers' on the Lower East Side." New York: The Sun (2008): n. pag.
Web. 10 Dec 2009. <http://www.nysun.com/arts/beautiful-losers-on-the-lower-eastside/83420/>.
Wilson, Michael. "Loser Wins." ARTFORUM. 14Aug2008. Artforum Internation Magazin, New
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Lanzenauer, Johann. "BEAUTIFUL LOSERS - CONTEMPORARY ART & STREET
CULTURE." CC:CIRCLECULTURE MAGAZINE 13Feb2006: n. pag. Web. 10 Dec
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Rose, Aaron. "MCGEE/TEMPLETON/PETTIBON." Circleculture Gallery. 30May2009. Web.
10 Dec 2009. <http://www.circleculturegallery.com/exhibitions/mcgee__templeton__pettibon/>.
Wells, Meg. "Who is Aaron Rose?." Flux. 14Mar2008. Web. 10 Dec 2009. <http://flux.net/whois-aaron-rose>.