For over twenty years, the pop artist has fetishized the
sixties and seventies in enchanting fashion, creating a wild retro realm that
you just want to disappear into like Alice sinking into the looking glass. It’s
a world in which every cat is super cool, every chick is ultra groovy, every
color is eye-poppingly brilliant, and every environment is de-luxe. You may
have seen his work in commercial settings, as it has appeared in numerous
adverts and on the covers of quite a few CD collections. Nevertheless, there’s always
seriousness artistry behind the method. More surprisingly, nightmarish blasts
sometimes shatter the retro dreaminess of Shag’s world. He has depicted scenes
of murder, torture, and Hieronymus Bosch-inspired depravity in his signature,
crowd-pleasing style. He has even come clean about how his own dark times
inspired some of these deviations in his work.
Shag’s light and dark, artistic and commercial work is all
on glorious display in a gorgeous new collection titled Shag: The Collected Works. This book levels Shag’s wide playing
field, encompassing his acrylic paintings as well as the things featuring his
artwork you aren’t likely to see hanging in any museum: the CD covers, the ottomans,
the coasters, the pillows, the Hawaiian shirts, the watches, the drinking
glasses. It’s all marvy. So is his taste in pop culture as he gives The
Beatles, The Ramones, The Velvets, the Universal Monsters, The Twilight Zone, The Planet
of the Apes, Star Wars, Batman, and Disneyland the Shag
treatment.
