Busacca Gallery

Dumb Luck Retrospective Art Book Of the Artist Gary Baseman Dumb Luck The Idiotic Genius of Gary Baseman. Baseman's uber retrospective 240 page hard cover book celebrating his first 10 years of work in painting, drawing and illustration. Published by Chronicle Books. Product is out of print. Its in limited availability. ARTIST: Gary Baseman Dumb Luck TYPE: Hardcover, color. 240 pages. SIZE: Approx. 12 x 8 inches. By Pao & Paws, 8-1/2 x 11 in; 336 pp ; full-color images throughout,
Hardcover,
Published in April, 2004, Sorry, this product is out of print. limited availability. Mucking up the pages of the New Yorker, the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Forbes, the Atlantic Monthly, Blab, and more, Gary Baseman has populated the finest publications with his inimitable brand of illustration. Now Dumb Luck, presents the first complete collection of his work, spanning more than ten years. According to Baseman himself, his art inhabits "that muddy spot where the line between genius and stupidity has been smudged beyond recognition." Dark and dopey, hokey and heartbreaking, his world is populated with freaky folks, maimed bunnies, weird wiener dogs, and anthropomorphic ice-cream cones that yearn and burn just like we do. Baseman's particular genius lies in capturing those ridiculous and all-too-often appalling aspects of being human. Hilarious testimony to the mind of its creator, Dumb Luck is both an art manifesto and a raw celebration of idiocy. 
Pao & Paws is an award-winning creative agency based in Taipei, Tokyo, New York, and London.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Baseman

Gary Baseman (born 1960) is a contemporary artist who works in various creative fields, including illustration, fine art, toy design, and animation. He is the creator of the Emmy-winning ABC/Disney cartoon series, Teacher’s Pet, and the artistic designer of Cranium, a popular board game. Baseman’s aesthetic combines iconic pop art images, pre- and post-war vintage motifs, cross-cultural mythology and literary and psychological archetypes. He is noted for his playful, devious and cleverly named creatures, which recur throughout his body of work.



Baseman was born and raised in the Fairfax district of Los Angeles. He is the fourth child of Holocaust survivors from Poland and Russia. Baseman's mother worked at the famous Canter’s Deli and his father was an electrician. Baseman cites Warner Bros. cartoons, MAD Magazine, and Disneyland as early sources of inspiration. In junior high school, Baseman met Barry Smolin, who is now a radio host and musician, and Seth Kurland, a writer and TV producer. They remain close friends.



Baseman studied communications at UCLA. He graduated magna cum laude as a member of the Phi Beta Kappa society.



While Baseman is a figure in the Los Angeles art world, he is also situated within an international cultural movement that includes both mainstream and underground artists. Baseman cites Yoshitomo Nara, Takashi Murakami, and the illustrator William Joyce as contemporaries.

Baseman coined the term pervasive art as an alternative to the lowbrow art label.[6] Baseman uses the term didactically to describe a broad shift in his and others’ work to more visible avenues of art-making. He has stated that his goal is to “blur the lines between fine art and commercial art.” According to Baseman, pervasive art can take any medium, and need not be “limited to one world, whether [that] is the gallery world, editorial world, or art toy world.”