Highbrow/Lowbrow Art

During my bike ride this morning I got to thinking about how some of my favorite artists are those who embrace both the highbrow and lowbrow aspects of their art and utilize them equally.

Classical composers, for instance, tend to exhibit a kind of high-seriousness to their work and image that makes it hard to imagine them branching off into punk-rock or other idioms that some would consider too simple or immature to merit inclusion, whereas Frank Zappa was not beyond approaching subjects like S&M, talking mountains, or being a dental floss tycoon in the midst of some incredibly sophisticated compositions that rival said composers.

So I wonder, who are some artists (musicians, writers, filmmakers, poets, etc) that you feel exhibit this quality in their work? I'm always on the lookout for others.

Additional examples beyond Zappa include Alan Moore, Mr. Bungle, Thomas Pynchon, Secret Chiefs 3, John Zorn, Quentin Tarantino, The Kronos Quartet, Carl Stalling, Mozart, Charles Ives,

aphex for sure

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodernism

[youtubehd]OPyZGCKu2wg[/youtubehd]

Most "highbrow art" is boring and tiring. And lame.

As you said in the OP, a mixture of the two is best.

  On 7/6/2013 at 10:18 PM, Wall Bird said:

During my bike ride this morning I got to thinking about how some of my favorite artists are those who embrace both the highbrow and lowbrow aspects of their art and utilize them equally.

 

Classical composers, for instance, tend to exhibit a kind of high-seriousness to their work and image that makes it hard to imagine them branching off into punk-rock or other idioms that some would consider too simple or immature to merit inclusion, whereas Frank Zappa was not beyond approaching subjects like S&M, talking mountains, or being a dental floss tycoon in the midst of some incredibly sophisticated compositions that rival said composers.

 

So I wonder, who are some artists (musicians, writers, filmmakers, poets, etc) that you feel exhibit this quality in their work? I'm always on the lookout for others.

 

Additional examples beyond Zappa include Alan Moore, Mr. Bungle, Thomas Pynchon, Secret Chiefs 3, John Zorn, Quentin Tarantino, The Kronos Quartet, Carl Stalling, Mozart, Charles Ives,

Thanks you for making a thread dedicated to my favorite sort of artist. After listening to almost all of the new Kanye West album my soul is in dire need of replenishing. It's actually pretty hard to come up with many good examples of this... first one to come to mind after those you mentioned is Devin Townsend.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS2kKDdFGmM

Boredoms, Will Self, Merzbow, Reeves & Mortimer.

David Lynch, Paul Thomas Anderson, The Coen Bros

A SYNTHESIS IS ALWAYS BEST! HAVENT YOU PEOPLE LEARNT NOTHING FROM HEGEL INNIT?

or alphonse mucha, more commercial art that is high art.

Keith Haring, Picasso, can't think of any more atm but there are lots.

Ken Russell

Klaus Nomi

Andy Warhol

Jean Michel Basquiat

Joan Miro

I'm watching The Wire right now and I think it qualifies. Any show with incredible Shakespearean storylines alongside quotes like "You know who got the fattest ass AND the best pussy? Midgets, nigga" gets a special place in my heart, dudes.

shakespeare had low brow comedy as well; it's just cloaked in an old language so one tends to confuse it with some elitist speaking exercise.

I don't like the distinction between low- and highbrow art for various reasons. Apart from the subjective aspect, I think it gives a false discrepancy about what art should be about. To me the paradox seems to be more about the extent to which an artist wants to achieve some sort of effect from his/her crowd. Does an artist like people to enjoy certain aspects about his/her art? Or does he/she give a f$ck?

The way I came at this point was because I started to wonder whether I could come up with an example of some artist not giving a fuck about what the audience would think, but is loved anyways. Perhaps 2001: A space odyssey would be such an example. Which was oddly popular even though its incomprehensible off beat content.

And also the reverse: an artist being very conscious about the audience arriving at some place where people could not comprehend the piece anymore. This one is more difficult, but I'm thinking about Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen atm. You don't write an opera to have an audience turning against you, so to speak. But at the same time it's so pompous and bombastic, large parts of the audience just don't have the will to sit through it all.

It's called Nobrow and it's everywhere around, being the quality of cultural life. It's much more difficult to find those mythical High-brow artists in today's world, because they also play this game in their niche.

saw Llyn Foulkes at New Museum a couple weeks back. I think he qualifies.. maybe a bit more lowbrow then highbrow

http://llynfoulkes.com/

When an artist really forces the highbrow, it can rub me the wrong way, even when I enjoy it quite a bit. Christopher Nolan and more recent Radiohead are some popular examples.

this concept is basically a facet of post modernism so one might look further into people who's work is considered postmodernist

yeah

StSanders is the most important artist of the 21st Century

http://stsanders.com/www/pages/videos/band-shreds/sts-rolling-stones.php

I'm after Thickbrow/Densebrow by artists which look hurt when they thinkin.

i tried to get into intelligent densebrow but lord if it doesn't insist upon itself

  On 7/8/2013 at 2:02 AM, LUDD said:

StSanders is the most important artist of the 21st Century

 

http://stsanders.com/www/pages/videos/band-shreds/sts-rolling-stones.php

Oh my god I love these. The marilyn manson one....ahahah