Three Chords and Four Colors


 


A bit over a week ago (but it seems like months) I went down to the ArtChicago show and met up with my old friend Mark Brandl for the first time in nearly 20 years. We both frequented the same bar back when the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago had become the warren of artists after we'd been kicked out of New Town (which had been the artists' warren after we;d been kicked out of Old Town.) It was a good place to be for a number of reasons. (I've already mentioned that Lakeview was also home to fledgling MacroMind, Inc., which became the bloated giant MacroMedia before it was swallowed by the überbloated übergiant Adobe.)
The bar itself only had a Leinenkugel's sign out front and hat this enormously high painted tin ceiling, which made crowd noise really loud. There was a turntable behind the bar, and when I first walked into that nameless den, it was playing Patti Smith, followed by the Pretenders. It was only two blocks away, and it was a good place to nurse a beer and think. I met all sorts of interesting folks there, some of whom became lifelong friends.
Mark was from a different world: he was a Fine Artist, if an Outsider Fine Artist. But he was tremendously attracted to comics, and so viewed me as something other than an oddity. And especially at the time, I had been thinking a lot about the Fine Art Community and what it was really. I probably would be more churlish these days--or maybe not.
We did a lot of good art talk, and i went to some of the shows he participated in--and we talked about doing comics together. I had even come up with a series idea--Skeleton Crew--and one of the characters Mark designed was distinctive because his mask was a bondage zipper mask. It was fun--but I knew there was no paying market I could sell it to.
Well, as such things tend to go, i left the city, and left comics. Mark eventually went to study with Gene Colan--and then moved to Switzerland. And so it remained for many years, a long then, but sincere and strong, bond.
I am pleased to say that Mark has moved into a wonderful place artistically. If you think of fine art and comics coming together, you tend to think of Roy Lichtenstein, whom it's easy to despise. Take a perfectly good Russ Heath panel and splash exaggerated Ben Day dots over everything, and you're a genius, right? (Roy was more than that--but he certainly didn't do well by comics.)
But Mark in some ways is Roy Lichtenstein inside out. (and oddly enough, he works these days in the actual state of Lichtenstein.) He takes an ironic, intelligent, theory-drenched and expamsive swing at comics--but, as it were from the inside. His booth at the Artists Project section of the show was filled with painted comic book covers--but hung on the inner structure than on the halftone superficialities of ol' Roy. They have the general layout of comic book covers, and he uses comic logo and blurb techniques--but there's very little figuration, and no 'appropriation.' They're also passionate and funny. (Go to the images section of Mark's site and scroll down to his covers and look closely. As my brother said, gazing at the wall, "I'd buy any of these comics." Then he leaned over and asked me, "He doesn't actually do the whole comic, does he?"
Wouldn't that be nice.
He also does these huge Installation walk-in comics. Enormous gallery walls become books and (In a new application of the old 80's comics slogan) 'Every panel's a painting!" Comics you can walk into.
It's definitely Fine Art: he's dealing with formal and theoretical issues and putting his passion out unfiltered by commercial or storytelling concerns. But unlike most other fine art approaches to comics, A comic book person standing in front of Mark's stuff will laugh and nod--and be vaguely disappointed that those actual comics aren't for sale.
Mark's inspiration and passion also derive from music: He has this stylized dual portrait (his Mount Rushmore) of John Lennon and the Siegel & Shuster Superman. And he sums it up for me in a phrase off one of his covers: Three Chords and Four Colors.
It was great seeing an old friend again--but even greater seeing his work mature into something that resonates beautifully with both worlds.
He gets it. And that's a joy to see.

Posted: Monday - May 07, 2007 at 04:15 PM        

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