Beautiful Losers Hit the Big Screen
A new documentary examines key figures in contemporary art and street culture.
BY: JEFF BEER
In March 2004, the “Beautiful Losers” exhibition debuted at the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center and brought together a stunning collection of contemporary and “street” artists whose work is influenced by skateboarding, punk, graffiti, hip hop and an overall DIY approach. After a successful run in Cincinnati, the show traveled to San Francisco, Orange County, Baltimore, then on to Europe, Asia and Australia by last year. There is also the accompanying book and now, theBeautiful Losers documentary.
Beautiful Losers: Trailer | Full View »
The film doesn’t feature every artist from the gallery show, instead choosing to focus on a core group — Harmony Korine, Mike Mills, Stephen Powers, Thomas Campbell, Margaret Kilgallen, Shepard Fairey, Jo Jackson, Ed Templeton, Geoff McFetridge, Chris Johanson and Barry McGee — representing a cross section of the personalities and styles in this particular art movement. While many documentaries tend to discuss subjects well past the studied time frame, director Aaron Rose, also the co-curator of the original art exhibit, wanted to examine this movement while it was still happening. The approach gives the film a welcome immediacy and avoids much of the back-in-the-day pitfalls that can plague any story being told through the often rose-colored lens of hindsight. That’s not to say there isn’t a healthy dose of nostalgia for the days these artists gathered in New York’s Alleged Gallery on the Lower East Side as a group of youthful unknowns, but a good portion of the film also looks at their more recent transition from art world nobodies to working with high profile brands and having work displayed in major galleries and museums around the world. In that way, it’s very much a coming-of-age story, of both the individual artists, their careers and style of art, itself.
We spoke to Rose after the film’s AIGA screening in New York.
