8.15.2012

Artist31: Boris Vallejo

 

Peruvian artist Boris Vallejo epitomized the pop fantasy art scene in the 1970's and 80's. His art and the art of those working in his style was the norm for comic books, scifi novel covers, video game box art, and album covers of the time and developed an iconic, classic style for the latter 20th century. Vallejo's art in particular takes the subject matter to the extreme. His figures and environments, always portrayed in high contrast and oversaturated colors, created a rich visceral fantasy world. His pieces are consistently full of technicolor violence and sexuality. The human form is most commonly the focus of Vallejo's work, with men and women with idealized figures embrace each other and fight off beasts in little to no clothing.



When it comes down to it, I think 'oversaturation' is the best way to sum up Vallejo's work. Oversaturated with sexuality, violence, imagination, color, form, etc gives his art such a unique, classic feel. It seems to me that his work is, in many ways, an extension of the underground grindhouse movement of the 70's and 80's where the traditional limits of the past centuries were quickly being broken and people just wanted to see how far they could go, taking everything to the extreme.

No comments:

Post a Comment