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On Tender Hooks
Isabel Samaras's quirky, sexy, pop-surrealist art has had a cult following for years and now at long last her first monograph, On Tender Hooks , is here. Drawing her influence from classic TV shows and paintings by the Old Masters for example riffing on G ricault's Raft of the Medusa by replacing the figures with characters from Gilligan's Island Samaras has created a witty, erotic, and surreal body of work. This fresh and dazzling volume includes a three-way interview between Samaras and fellow low-brow artists Shag and The Pizz, as well as delightful and enlightening commentary from gallerist Justin Giarla and art writer Colin Berry, and an erotic short story by Lucy Blue.
- GenresArtArt and Photography
160 pages, Hardcover
First published May 13, 2009
23 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 3, 2022
Shows the influence of too much TV watching to the point of extreme idiocy and tastelessness. Is Samaras really going to be doing things like I Dream of Jeannie or Pee Wee Herman fan art until she's 80? What an emotionally and artistically stunted thing to do. She shows no capacity for artistic growth beyond her teenage years, nor does she show the development of any artistic breadth or depth.
September 8, 2022
There's nothing quite like seeing Pee-wee Herman posed as St. Sebastian or Dr. Zira and baby Milo from the third Planet of the Apes movie as Madonna and Child masterfully captured in oils. God bless Isabel Samaras.
November 10, 2017
This is my kind of art--classic but with a pop tongue-in-cheek.
March 26, 2019
I really do like Isabel Samaras' work.
Pre-weed read.
Pre-weed read.
October 22, 2015
If you are easily offended, this is not the book for you. If it tickles you to see iconic images put into a pornographic (yet artistic) context, this is the perfect book for you.
Isabel Samaras apparently favors using classics like "I Dream of Jeannie," "Batman and Robin," "The Addams Family," "The Munsters," etc. and gives them a fabulous pornographic twist; she puts The Addams and Munsters in bed together; has Batman and Robin making out (and so much more); Lily and Morticia sharing a moment or two. She paints beyond these examples, of course, and every painting is just wonderful. Every once in a while, an original painting is shown to give the viewer a better idea of what inspired a particular painting and many paintings take up two pages because one page is devoted to giving a close up of something in the background.
Her introduction to this book is fabulous! Her writing style is very engaging: she explains what and who inspired her to start painting and why she started off with vintage lunch boxes and TV trays as canvases; she mentions her trips to Italy and how each trip was a completely different experience because of the way it affected her painting. She details why she decided to depict classic monsters in alternate (i.e. happy) scenarios and she gives us a glimpse of her painting process.
Justin Giarla (a gallerist who showed her work) writes about what made her artwork appeal to him. One thing he said was "Yet Isabel's subjects aren't the perverse musings of some twisted mind. Instead, they are actually loving portraits of humanity, with all its failings and crazy drama." He wrote that for people who grew up on these television shows, Isabel's paintings remind them what it is like to be a kid again.
Colin Berry wrote "... Isabel clearly embraced tenderness in her work ... [she] favored scenes of affection, mystery and passion." He juxtaposes her work with other artists' in that genre (which is apparently "Lowbrow") and goes into some detail about how her style and subject matter differs from the others'.
Isabel Samaras apparently favors using classics like "I Dream of Jeannie," "Batman and Robin," "The Addams Family," "The Munsters," etc. and gives them a fabulous pornographic twist; she puts The Addams and Munsters in bed together; has Batman and Robin making out (and so much more); Lily and Morticia sharing a moment or two. She paints beyond these examples, of course, and every painting is just wonderful. Every once in a while, an original painting is shown to give the viewer a better idea of what inspired a particular painting and many paintings take up two pages because one page is devoted to giving a close up of something in the background.
Her introduction to this book is fabulous! Her writing style is very engaging: she explains what and who inspired her to start painting and why she started off with vintage lunch boxes and TV trays as canvases; she mentions her trips to Italy and how each trip was a completely different experience because of the way it affected her painting. She details why she decided to depict classic monsters in alternate (i.e. happy) scenarios and she gives us a glimpse of her painting process.
Justin Giarla (a gallerist who showed her work) writes about what made her artwork appeal to him. One thing he said was "Yet Isabel's subjects aren't the perverse musings of some twisted mind. Instead, they are actually loving portraits of humanity, with all its failings and crazy drama." He wrote that for people who grew up on these television shows, Isabel's paintings remind them what it is like to be a kid again.
Colin Berry wrote "... Isabel clearly embraced tenderness in her work ... [she] favored scenes of affection, mystery and passion." He juxtaposes her work with other artists' in that genre (which is apparently "Lowbrow") and goes into some detail about how her style and subject matter differs from the others'.
January 4, 2010
Isabel Samaras paints every Baby Boomers wet dream come to life: TV vixens either nude or nude making out with each other, so this book depicts Batgirl making out with The Catwoman, Herman and Lily Munster in bed with Morticia and Gomez Addams in the famous "Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice" pose, lots of naked Samantha Stevens (Bewitched), Jeanie the Genie, Ginger and Mary Anne from Gilligan's Island, Emma Peel (Avengers), if she was sexy in the Sixties and on TV you'll find her painted nude in Isabel's book. And for the gays there's even Spock and Kirk getting down, Robin and Kato (Green Hornet) making out, brother, no stone's unturned in this one.
November 24, 2010
Cool shit!
July 23, 2017
Excellent !
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews