Gary Baseman

He was the first American-born child of four to Ben and Naomi Baseman, (1916-2010 and 1921-2012 respectively) both Holocaust survivors originally from Eastern Poland (now Ukraine).

His parents believed strongly in the American Dream, and instilled in their son democratic ideals, using their right to vote, unionize, and advocate for issues that resonated with them.

Having experienced horrific history, they encouraged their son to show empathy and compassion for others, as well as be true to oneself.

The influence of media and Hollywood, blended with LA’s influential art scene, led to how Baseman would perceive and produce art.

"“I grew up in the center of the city, the son of immigrants, attending public school with kids with different backgrounds. Our house was blocks away from CBS Television City. My mom worked at Canter’s in the Fairfax District, where people from the industry and rock-n-rollers would often land. I was a latchkey kid whose parents were often working, and whose older siblings were out on their own. Television was like my babysitter. Early on, my brother brought animation cels from Hanna-Barbera Studios home for me to play with. While sitting and drawing at the coffee table in the living room, I’d watch hours of cartoons and comedies and dramas.”"Baseman graduated magna cum laude from UCLA in communications, inspired by the American Constitution's First Amendment, and developed into an effective visual problem-solver and message-maker.

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.

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."

Today, artists whom Baseman might refer to as pervasive are part of a larger movement with a recognizable "pop" sense, but not necessarily a shared artistic mission.

However, by virtue of where these artists are shown and in what ways they garner public attention, it can be said that all pervasive artists in some way play with the boundaries between high and low art.

Among artistic peers, critics, and Baseman followers, pervasive art referred to an aesthetic that was until recently, limited to the mediums of album art, comic books, cartoons, graffiti, and speciality galleries.

Now, pervasive art is largely realized in multiple mediums and across a range of industries, from fashion design, advertising and graphic design, to toy design, film, music collaboratives, and music videos.

Cult-status street artists like Banksy, new wave comics illustrators like Gary Panter, Japanese pop artists, post-punk and hip hop artists, and graphic artists like Shepard Fairey all contribute to a highly visible aesthetic that is virtually ubiquitous in contemporary culture.

Baseman himself exemplifies pervasive art in that he works commercially and also remains an independent fine artist.

While he creates products that are sold to a mass market, he also shows in museums and galleries, selling original artworks to collectors.

Baseman employs traditional art practices such as painting, printmaking, sculpture, drawing, and collage.

For Baseman, being a pervasive artist means staying true to a particular message and aesthetic no matter the medium employed.

Gary Baseman (born September 27, 1960) is an American artist, cartoonist, and animator who investigates history, heritage, and the human condition (especially love, longing, and loss).

Through iconography and visual narratives that celebrate “the beauty of the bittersweetness of life,” his work brings together the worlds of popular culture and fine art.

Baseman’s career includes illustration for clients including The New York Times, Rolling Stone, and The Wall Street Journal and the bestselling board game Cranium; as well as animation for the Emmy and BAFTA award-winning series Teacher’s Pet and its subsequent feature-length film of the same name for ABC/Disney.

He is a frequent speaker at international conferences on graphic and multidisciplinary arts and visual communications.

Recent projects include a collaboration with COACH; a documentary Mythical Creatures about his family heritage; a traveling retrospective that featured hundreds of his paintings, photographs, videos, and toy and costume designs.

Gary Baseman was born and raised in Los Angeles, California.

By the end of the 1990s, Baseman realized his creativity could extend beyond the world of illustration.

His desire to learn and explore other areas of art would result in an explosive creative period for him that blurred lines and expanded audiences as he explained:"“I had a hunger for many things. I started looking at my legacy and thinking ‘what am I leaving behind me’? I loved the editorial work, but it didn’t seem rich enough. I had a fear of creating my own body of work and bringing it out into the world. It always stems from a fear of failure or that people won’t be interested. But I didn’t let that stop me. While doing my editorial work, even if I had an assignment, I couldn’t stop experimenting with my own things and painting like crazy, but still always made sure to hit my professional deadlines. At the same time, I also wanted to do TV; I created two pilots for Nickelodeon that never got created in the end. I was expanding in different ways, getting bigger within the toy world and participating in exhibitions.

At the time, I was gradually giving up the editorial work, so it was an easier transition.”"In 1999, Baseman exhibited "Dumb Luck and Other Paintings About Lack of Control" at the Mendenhall Gallery in Los Angeles. The exhibition established Baseman's transition from illustration to fine art, during a time when many of his artist-friends, like Mark Ryden, the Clayton Brothers, and Eric White made similar moves.

Since then, Baseman has exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the United States, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, the Philippines, Russia, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, and the United Kingdom.

Baseman's work is featured in the permanent collections of the Laguna Art Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. and the Museum of Modern Art in Rome.

As Tom Teicholz pointed out in his 2013 interview "Going Home with Gary Baseman", "'After graduating from UCLA, Baseman pursued a commercial art career while continuing to make art, “on the side.” He did a short stint at an ad agency, but that did not really agree with him, so he began to pursue work as a commercial illustrator. To make his American Dream come true and despite his parents’ initial objections, Baseman moved to New York in 1986.”""“The advertising and publishing and art world were all in New York. Every major artist was in New York, and at the time if you lived in L.A. you were a substandard regional artist. You had to go there”, Baseman has said."From 1986-1996, Baseman worked as an illustrator in New York.

He established himself during this period as an in-demand artist with a unique visual sense and the ability to generate sharp, witty messages.

He earned several awards from American Illustration, Art Directors Club and Communication Arts.

Baseman refers to his illustration work, and to his general process, as message-making.

Baseman's drawings have been published in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Time, Rolling Stone, The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times.

He has had major independent and corporate clients such as AT&T Corporation, Gatorade, Nike, Inc. and Mercedes-Benz.

Baseman created the visual identity for the best-selling board game Cranium.

After ten years in New York, Baseman returned to Los Angeles to explore opportunities in art and entertainment.

Baseman had his first major art museum retrospective, "Gary Baseman: The Door is Always Open", in 2013 at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, California.