We Want to Fly
View Similar Items
Robert MarsWe Want to Fly2014
2014
About the Item
- Creator:Robert Mars (1969, American)
- Creation Year:2014
- Dimensions:Height: 40 in (101.6 cm)Width: 80 in (203.2 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Boston, MA
- Reference Number:Seller: RM-MM-06631stDibs: LU237115476
Robert Mars
Juxtaposing the faces of iconic celebrities with patterns reminiscent of quilting and folk art, Robert Mars (b. 1969) considers the many facets of American popular culture through the lens of advertising.
In Mars’s mixed-media works, brand names are collaged beneath the visages of mid-century stars such as Elvis, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe and Jackie Kennedy, with neon lighting and shiny coats of resin on wood panels lending each piece the allure of a covetable consumer object.
Born in New Jersey, Mars studied at the Parsons School of Design and worked for a time as a graphic designer. His cultural mash-ups draw on imagery from his collection of vintage magazines. Combining enlarged Xerox transfers and boldly painted colors in several built-up layers, his works recall the messy remixing of everyday objects by Robert Rauschenberg as well as the explorations of mass reproduction and fame by Andy Warhol. The shape of a Chanel No. 5 bottle, a Louis Vuitton logo and a photograph of Audrey Hepburn are all plucked from mass media as relics of Americana and the obsession with luxury. Distressing the surfaces of the pieces, Mars gives them a timeworn texture, like an old advertisement that might be found on the wall of a roadside gas station, but with a surreal quality in their recontextualized subjects.
The stars and mass-media material in Mars’s work mostly have origins in the 1950s and ’60s, an age that saw the rise of celebrity endorsements during a postwar economic boom in which there were plenty of novel new products to promote. An image of Jackie Kennedy is overlaid with ad copy for Dior; a photograph of a victorious Muhammad Ali is joined with Champion Spark Plugs typography. The nostalgia here is for commerce as much as it is for people who became a brand. In the artist’s dynamic collages, the lines between what, or who, is being packaged and sold are blurred.
Mars has produced commissions for Coca-Cola, was a featured artist for a project with Kari Whitman Interiors and was chosen in 2015 for the cover of Neiman Marcus’s May Book. He has exhibited at the Evansville Museum of Art, Coral Springs Museum of Art and elsewhere.
Find Robert Mars mixed-media works, paintings and other art on 1stDibs.
- Cadence No.2By Stev'nn HallLocated in Boston, MAArtist: Hall, Stev’nn Title: Cadence No.2 Date: 2022 Medium: Photography, Oil, Ink and pastel with textured matte surface on birch panel Unframed Dimensions: 32" x 32" Signature...Category
2010s Contemporary Landscape Photography
MaterialsMixed Media
- Yes + NoBy Brendan MurphyLocated in Boston, MAArtist: Murphy, Brendan Title: Yes + No Date: 2022 Medium: Oil, Acrylic, and Gouache on chrome panel Unframed Dimensions: 36" x 24" Signature: Signed by Artist on Verso Edition...Category
2010s Contemporary Mixed Media
MaterialsMixed Media, Oil
$13,500 - Love Matters (small)By Brendan MurphyLocated in Boston, MAArtist: Murphy, Brendan Title: Love Matters (small) Date: 2023 Medium: Carbon fiber sculpture with silver based chrome finish Unframed Dimensions: 24" x 22" x 24" Signature: Un...Category
2010s Contemporary Mixed Media
MaterialsMixed Media, Oil
- Love Matters (small)By Brendan MurphyLocated in Boston, MAArtist: Murphy, Brendan Title: Love Matters (small) Date: 2023 Medium: Carbon fiber sculpture with silver based chrome finish Unframed Dimensions: 24" x 22" x 24" Signature: Un...Category
2010s Contemporary Mixed Media
MaterialsMixed Media, Oil
- Coming Out (Viva Magenta)By Brendan MurphyLocated in Boston, MAArtist: Murphy, Brendan Title: Coming Out (Viva Magenta) Date: 2023 Medium: Carbon fiber sculpture with silver based chrome finish Unframed Dimensions: 72" x 31" x 20" Signature...Category
2010s Contemporary Mixed Media
MaterialsMixed Media, Oil
- Valentino Orange DiamondBy Stephen WilsonLocated in Boston, MAArtist: Wilson, Stephen Title: Valentino Orange Diamond Date: 2017 Medium: Mixed Media Framed Dimensions: 21.15" x 18.25" Signature: Signed Edit...Category
2010s Contemporary Mixed Media
MaterialsMixed Media
Price Upon Request
- Text/Pop/Route 66_American Play Diptych, 2021_Greg Miller_Acrylic/Collage/PanelBy Greg MillerLocated in 326 N Coast Hwy. | Laguna Beach, CAGREG MILLER American Play Diptych, 2021 Acrylic, Collage on Panel 36 x 36 in. each 36 x 72 in. overall Drawing from the diverse cultural and geographic makeup of his Californian ro...Category
2010s Contemporary Mixed Media
MaterialsMixed Media, Acrylic, Panel
- No Charges - American Flag Painting over Vintage Newsprint Photo CollageBy Patrick BurnsLocated in Chicago, ILPatrick Burns No Charges original newsprint, acrylic, polymer, resin on panel 32h x 48w in 81.28h x 121.92w cm PB0004 Patrick Burns b. 1987, Cleveland, OH Bio I like to explore t...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media
MaterialsResin, Mixed Media, Acrylic, Panel, Newsprint, Polymer
- American Contemporary Art by David Paul Kay - FloraLocated in Paris, IDFMixed media, Varnished David Paul Kay is an American contemporary artist born in 1982 who lives and works in New York City, USA. With a focus on vibrant lines and intricate composit...Category
2010s Contemporary Mixed Media
MaterialsMixed Media
- GeishaBy Michael KalishLocated in Los Angeles, CAThis is a signed and numbered limited edition of 18. Commission Only, lead time is apx. 6 weeks. This dimensional wall sculpture is created with layered laser cut aluminum pieces ei...Category
2010s Contemporary Mixed Media
MaterialsMetal
Price Upon Request - Dewdrops - Mixed Media Abstract Painting By Beverly BigwoodLocated in Carmel, CADewdrops - Mixed Media Abstract Painting By Beverly Bigwood About the artist, Beverly Bigwood Award-winning Artist Beverly Bigwood (Bigwood Art) received the highest compliment an a...Category
2010s Contemporary Abstract Paintings
MaterialsBluestone, Metal
- Rejoicing - Abstract Painting By Beverly BigwoodLocated in Carmel, CARejoicing - Abstract Painting By Beverly Bigwood About the artist, Beverly Bigwood Award-winning Artist Beverly Bigwood (Bigwood Art) received the highest compliment an artist can r...Category
2010s Contemporary Abstract Paintings
MaterialsCanvas, Mixed Media, Acrylic