Profile for BlameTheSuburbs - Who has influenced T-shirt design?

BlameTheSuburbs aka Saman Bemel-Benrud is a 22.78 year old boy, has been a member since October 5, 2005, has scored 15724 submissions, giving an average score of 1.76.

URL: http://mfmapparel.etsy.com

Jul 29 '09 by BlameTheSuburbs

9 Comments

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Who has influenced T-shirt design?

The New Museum's sponsorship of a T-less competition has had me thinking a lot. Mostly about the relationship between T-design and art (as opposed to t-shirt designs and illustration or fashion or design). Who are some artists who think are connected to T-shirt design and why? Can we start talking about T-shirts as Art? Is that okay with you?

1950s/60s-Robert Rauchenberg- Combined pop references with a more high art practice. Combined things in a collage style, possibly foreshadowing digital collage techniques.

1950s/60s-Andy Warhol- Started questioning low/high art divisions, merging pop culture references with art. Screen printed, mass produced work.

1980s-Jenny Holzer- Conceptual artist, Shirts were a big part of some of her "truism" campaigns.

1980s-Keith Haring- Opened Pop shop, which sold T-shirts and other mech featuring his art. He was an early embracer of commercializing art and putting it on whatever could get it exposed to the most people possible. Graphic, illustration/graffiti inspired work.

1990s-Shepard Fairey- Sell out or genius? From the beginning, T-shirt design and popular, "cool" aesthetics important to his art. Bros wear Obey clothing with their tilted baseball caps, Fairey has retrospective in Boston Museum of art.

Add your own.

One last thought:
In general, the 1980's saw the beginning of the collapse of the high art/low art distinction. Many artists navigated freely between mass producing work and showing and selling expensive work in galleries. BUT, will there be/is there currently things we can call art coming from within the T-shirt design community, rather than traditional gallery artists just tossing their stuff on Tees? Is Threadless part of this?

When I think of who my biggest influences have been, both as an artist (I paint and draw and stuff) and as as a T-shirt designer), I certainly do think of traditional artists like Haring and Rauchenberg and "low art movement" associated artists like Tim Biskup, Jeff Soto, or Marcel Dzama. However, I also think about people like Julia Sonmi Heglund and Franx. There really is some new and amazing stuff happening in T-shirt design that isn't happening anywhere else.

Oh yeah, and, shameless plug:

Apotheosis - Threadless T-shirts, Nude No More

spacesick 2 on Jul 29 '09 at 9:02pm

art is stupid. art is my life. I don't like art.

BlameTheSuburbs on Jul 29 '09 at 9:03pm

I agree.

ilovecomputerz on Jul 30 '09 at 6:12pm

I keep seeing Keith Haring's work in non-profit, ad's for local events, heart foundation ads, or PSA's. Now I have name for that distinct group of art.

Also I think what you showcased here is modern or contemporary art, or at least that's what LACMA tells me it is. So far the only art movement that I have learned that matches anything I could consider as new art is new media art.

BlameTheSuburbs on Jul 30 '09 at 7:13pm

Oh dude, someone actually read my half-coherent rant about T-shirts. Yeah. Keith Haring is sort of the father figure of the whole underground artist/entrepreneur thing.

ilovecomputerz on Jul 30 '09 at 8:31pm

Well I spent my tuition for a humanities course on "New Media," so I got to put it to use some how.
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High art for me will be anything rich people would fork out enough on to show the world that something is art. I have once found myself in an art scene crowd (an indie film as well, same shit), and essentially you have all these young people trying to get the attention of some wealthy person by making them like their work, so they would end up in a famous museum.

Yet it's so much easier to just print your own stuff or sell it to t-shirt companies or ad firms (you make money faster that way). The low art artist I always think of is Shepard Fairey who you noted (now everyone knows him after his "Hope" poster, which was more of a successful viral ad, which is an art in itself).

Low art, or art for the masses, is still art even though there is no frame surrounding the piece, isn't hanging in some gallery, and is widely distributed (most new media art is also widely copied and distributed). However we the masses just shrug it off and call it design work, a pretty t-shirt, or a nice ad.

I'm a type of guy who thinks the meaning of an art is the way the artist intended it to be (that's why David Lynch annoys me when he won't explain his damn movies). If the artist/designer calls his piece a design, more than likely it's a design, not low art.

The in-between of low and high is the art scene at West Hollywood's Avenues of Art & Design and this place. Where people either sell their stuff in galleries or work in design firms.

Anyways that's how I see it for now.

BlameTheSuburbs on Jul 30 '09 at 9:04pm

I don't think there's that same hight art=rich people thing that there once was. Sure, there are some pretty stiff barriers to entry for lots of high art (extensive cultural knowledge, access to museums, ect), and on a certain level it's really elitist, but lots of artists in the last few decades have really successfully fought against elitism from within high art. There will always be the Jeff Koonses who are just around to make money, but not every "high artist" just makes work just to get in top galleries and make tons of money.

Also, lots of artists who started as "low artists" have crossed over to "high art" galleries. Farie's the obvious example, but not the only one. There is also a growing art scene around low art (Ryden, James Jean, ect) that is constantly gaining legitimacy.

I mean, I'm pretty much a fan of everything from Ellsworth Kelly to R. Crumb to...well, not to Thomas Kinkade. That guy should get into T-shirts though, speaking of Kinkade. A glowing cabin on a sweater would sell like hotcakes.

ilovecomputerz on Jul 30 '09 at 9:18pm

Thomas Kinkade is the guy that makes those cheesy landscape paintings? I see that guys work every time I visit my grandmother and I never knew!

BlameTheSuburbs on Jul 31 '09 at 9:48am

Yeah. He's pretty cool among grandparents. Anyone else have anything to add? Think we'll see a Berlin biennial T-shirt design exhibition any time soon?