CURATED LIBRARIES

Beautiful Losers

In the 1990s, a loose-knit group of American artists and creators, many just out of their teens, came together to forge the new idioms of that decade, for purpose other than the love of making. Influenced by the popular underground youth subcultures of the day, such as skateboarding, graffiti, street fashion, and independent music, artists like Mark Gonzales, Spike Jonze, Mike Mills, Barry McGee, Phil Frost, Chris Johanson, Harmony Korine and Ed Templeton began to create art that reflected the lifestyles they led. They learned their crafts through practice and trial and error; many had no formal training and almost no conception of the inner workings of the art world, but nonetheless went on to become the superstar artists and filmmakers of today’s cultural landscape.

Featured image, by Chris Johanson, is reproduced from Beautiful Losers.

"I like to present my information so I feel that anybody, whatever education they may have, can get involved into the art. I don’t want people to necessarily have an art degree to understand my work."

Chris Johanson