CoBrA vs Lowbrow (Pop Surrealism)

コブラ / ローブロウ

CoBrA comes from Avant-garde and Lowbrow (Pop Surrealism) from Illustration Styles. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.

CoBrA

CoBrA — カレル・アペル ガラス壁画（スロテルファールト病院、アムステルダム） — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0CoBrA — ピエール・アレシンスキー カラーリトグラフ（ヘルダーラント州立コレクション） — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 3.0CoBrA — カレル・アペル《Frog and Kat》 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0

A postwar avant-garde that linked Copenhagen, Brussels and Amsterdam. Holding up the directness of children's drawings and folk art, it painted rough-brushed creatures in primary colors and turned distrust of refinement into an international style.

Lowbrow (Pop Surrealism)

Lowbrow (Pop Surrealism) — Old Man Parker《Tiki Cat》2016年 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0Lowbrow (Pop Surrealism) — エド・ロス《オービトロン》1964年（撮影 Jerry Thompson 2009年）— Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0

Painting from outside the museum, schooled on hot rods, comics, tattoos and B movies. It renders pop memory in exacting oil technique, and Juxtapoz magazine gave it a home under the name Pop Surrealism.

CoBrALowbrow (Pop Surrealism)
Era1948–19511979–
FamilyAvant-gardeIllustration Styles
KindStyleStyle
CuesThe directness of children's drawing / Rough-brushed creatures / Colliding primaries / The refusal of planningPop-culture iconography / Precise classical technique / Uneasy humor / Street-born heraldry
Best used forChildren's books and building walls meant to startle before they instruct · Announcements for improvised or experimental music that should escape tidy layoutArtwork for record labels, skate brands and tattoo shops · Covers for shows or books that reject museum politeness outright
TypeLetters drawn by hand, uneven in size, living beside the figuresSign-painter and comic lettering rendered as carefully as the art
CompositionNo underdrawing, creatures pushed to the edges, gaps filled afterA central face with the surround filled by emblem-like motifs
MaterialThick red, blue, yellow and black with brushmarks left showingOil gloss and smooth gradation, brushwork sanded away
CautionAiming to look unskilled produces neither the speed of the hand nor a creature that exists, only a picture performing childishness.Picking creepy subject matter while skipping the rendering craft turns the work into doodling that only wants to shock.

Put these two together

Avant-garde ／ Illustration Styles

IndexStyle