An Ode to Joy: Posters, Prints and Other Work of Frank Kozik

Rating:
Summary: Too much--or not enough?
Review: I agree with the other reviewers that Frank Kozik's ODE TO JOY is plainly overproduced. But, I'm unconvinced that the book is spoilt by its overproduction. On the one hand, the clarity of Kozik's prints clearly suffers from the competing background noise of so much vibrant digitized wallpaper and acid commentary. But on the other hand, isn't this brilliant pop art gaudiness exactly what Kozik's artwork is all about?

I'd liken this to the headache of hanging a baroque or Queen Vickie period painting: yes, we the modern, general viewing public may yearn to see the work hung on a clean, white wall--as art for art's sake--but an art historian would want to see it in its proper context, in a room loaded to the gills with seafoam velvet wallpaper, cherry red furnishings, gilt bric-a-brac and the like.

Admittedly Kozik has become well-known enough that his work is now hung in galleries on those same clean, white walls, but I find it boring in such tasteful surroundings! Perhaps this is because I remember Kozik posters in their early context, plastered on walls and electric posts against generations of competing punk rock posters, well before Kozik became a post-pop art darling and his work started selling to collectors.

Never mind. Kozik's artwork IS overproduced, and commercially so; that's part of it's devilish charm (?). It deserves and looks right against the shrine of weird, self-referencing, self-aggrandizing background noise that ODE TO JOY makes. Busy, ugly, distracting, obnoxious, but right!

As for the quality of Kozik's recent work in and of itself, it's true that it has have lost some of the edge of his earlier work.

But that's to be expected. With his best indie clientele moving to fame, fortune and MTV (with or without his help?), Kozik the poster artist is facing the music that he is much too popular a talent to create and publish as a pariah anymore. Call it the loss of street credibility--after all, you don't see his posters pasted, unprotected, to building walls in bad neighborhoods much anymore!

I would never call Kozik a "sell-out" for his success (what a rotten, jealous term that is!), but I do think he might broaden his scope, evolve with his clientele--beginning by calling himself an artist instead of a poster artist. At least as long as he's going to hang his work on those clean, white gallery walls...

Rating:
Summary: An Ode to Joy by Frank Kozik
Review: Just want to make a comment about the review here from NY - the statement says Frank Kozik's art is second hand poster art. Well I hate to disappoint that customer but Frank Kozik is pretty much the person who SAVED poster art. That comment is clearly based on an unknowledgeable buyer. Please do not let it prevent you from checking out this wild book! Kozik's style is all about regenerating art - thats the most significant point it makes about POP art.

The book is a continuation of a long career by an artist who literally saved rock art as a serious form of creation and helped to bring punk subculture into mainstream America. He started this stuff a VERY long time ago. Prior to his work, poster art was not considered fine art. Now its in museums and galleries all over the world - Japan, Australia, Canada, Europe, etc.... ANY poster artist and POP gallery will confirm that. All successful poster artists today, with exception to Art Chantry, are following in Kozik's footsteps, and his work is respected for that - gaudy and mean and abnoctious as it is, afterall, thats rock-n-roll! He paved the way for poster art and took it to a completely new level never previously seen in history; poster art/artist as art/pop star - thats why we collect the book. I bought the book and do think some things could be different, but its totally worth owning it and I look at it for my own art inspiration all the time.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing but intriguing
Review: The second Kozik book is disappointing but not without its charms. Contrary to a previous review, I find the production value VERY poor, with confusing background overprinting and thin magazine paper ultimately taking focus away from the images themselves. Too much reliance on computer graphics cripples the low-brow immediacy of the best of Kozik's "art."

Kozik's recent stuff isn't up to the level of his earlier work --he'd probably be the first to admit this! This book is certainly worth getting for Kozik completists and those interested in poster art's slide into the 21st century.

If you DON'T have the first Kozik book, "Man's Ruin," GO GET IT NOW!!!