Dog Art Today

Tag: toys

  • Robert Bradford’s Toy Dogs

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    One day Cornwall-based artist Robert Bradford looked at his children’s box of outgrown toys and noticed the “random collection of colors, shapes, and forms they made.”  He thought, “If I could find a way of putting them together to constitute a
    larger form they would have great potential as larger scale sculpture.”

    Potential indeed.  I think his toy dog sculptures are fantastic!  If you’re in London, you can view the soft sculpture one (5th from the top) at the Battersea Affordable Art Fair  from March 12 – 15, 2009.  See more of Bradford’s works at his website. 

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    If you’re an artist, your assignment today is to look at the toy chest, the junk drawer, or your cleaning supplies with new eyes.  Maybe you’ll find a work of art.

    Via news:lite.

    P.S.  Robert just sent me a note to let me know he does commissions of people’s dogs.  Contact him at his website if you’re interested.  He also sent this new photo of his soft sculpture dog.  Love it!

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  • Keith Haring’s Dogs

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    Untitled, 1980

    Keith Haring (1958-1990), the quintessential Pop artist who stamped his style all over Manhattan in the 80s, would have turned 50 this year.  Haring's work is lauded for the "primacy of the line" as well as his devotion to the universal concepts of birth, death, love, sex and war. 

    Looking at his images on the excellent Keith Haring website, I would have to add dogs to that list as there are 86 dog art works there.  It was impossible for me to choose my favorite, but here are some picks to enjoy.  Click on images for larger view.

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    Untitled, 1980

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    Untitled, 1980

    Keith_haring_dog_4Untitled, 1980

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    Untitled, 1980

    Keith_haring_dog_7 Untitled, 1981

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    Nine Drawings, 1981

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    Untitled, 1981

    To me, Keith Haring represented everything that was cool and possible about the 1980s before he came to embody the tragedy of AIDS that decimated the arts community in the second half of the decade.  Sadly he died at age 31 in 1990.

    But even after his diagnosis in 1988, he used his talent to connect with people, bring awareness to the disease, and establish the Keith Haring Foundation to provide funding and imagery to AIDS organizations and children’s programs.  Brilliant!

    To own your own Keith Haring poster, decal, pin, t-shirt or toy and see many more fabulous dogs visit his Pop Shop.

    There is also a compilation book called Dogs that includes Haring's dog art work and personal writings on life, children and friendship.

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    It would be a great Christmas gift for the Pop Art dog lover in your life. Click here to order.

  • Gary Baseman Abroad

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    Even if you don’t know his name, I bet you know his work.  Gary Baseman has created an art empire from his bulbous, cheeky, and sometimes-gruesome imagination.  He is the Emmy winning creator of the cartoon Teacher’s Pet, a Juxtapoz favorite, the Cranium art designer, an illustrator for Nike, Gatorade, and Mercedes-Benz, and contributor to Esquire, Forbes, GQ, The New Yorker, Time, Reader’s Digest and Rolling Stone magazines, as well as in The New York Times. 

    His work is part of the permanent collections of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. and the Museum of Modern Art in Rome.  He has his own toy line and monograph of his work entitled Dumb Luck: The Art of Gary Baseman.  And, he’s a nice guy (I know him through a mutual friend).

    Tomorrow, July 3, he opens his new show Knowledge Comes from Gas Release at the Iguapop Gallery in Barcelona, Spain.  The 50 new works are said to be the result of Gary “challenging himself in a different way, trying to understand the aesthetic nature of what he paints, dealing with a sense of abstraction.”

    I’m not sure if there are any dogs, but I bet there will be some when he moves on to Rome’s MondoPOP Gallery on Sunday July, 13, where he will be signing toys, books and other merchandise.

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    Congratulations, Gary, and good luck with the shows!

    Sources: Juxtapoz and Wikipedia