Synopses & Reviews
Ralph Steadman's alter-autobiography is a work of comical genius as well as a profound commentary on the state of contemporary art.
Creator of his own inimitable visions of Freud, Leonardo, Orwell, Alice, and the Great Gonzo, Steadman now offers the triography of his artistic alter ego, the redoubtable Gavin Twinge. Twinge, last remnant of a nineteenth-century 'domestic engineering' dynasty, founder of the Doodaaa school, and pioneer of Barcode Art, Shredded Literature, and Centrifugal Abstraction, is the original angry voice of contemporary art.
From the moment Steadman first meets Twinge in a London bookshop, it becomes his quest to get to the heart of the misery that drives the lost soul of Art. Drawing inspiration from Twinge's fellow Doodaaists-among them Lily Potsdam (Whiplash Muralist), Schlemiel Weiss (Gnat's blood Organic Watercolorist) and Aaron Dickley (Primal Scream Environmentalist)-Steadman proves to be a truly inspired biographer, matching Twinge drink for drink as he prepares for the great exhibition that will crown his life's work. Illustrated throughout in color and black-and-white in Steadman's (and Twinge's) inimitable style, Doodaa is a biography standing at the center of a hall of mirrors.
Ralph Steadman, artist, writer, sculptor, political cartoonist and designer of labels for vintage wines, is the author of many illustrated books, including Sigmund Freud, I Leonardo, The Big I Am, and The Scar-strangled Banner. He is also the illustrator of Alice and Animal Farm and of Hunter S. Thompson's infamous Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. For thirty years he has been Gardening Correspondent for Rolling Stone.
Creator of his own inimitable visions of Freud, Leonardo, Orwell, Alice, and the Great Gonzo, Steadman now offers the "triography" of his artistic alter ego, the redoubtable Gavin Twinge. Thefictional Twinge, last remnant of a nineteenth-century 'domestic engineering' dynasty, founder of the Doodaaa school, and pioneer of Barcode Art, Shredded Literature, and Centrifugal Abstraction, is the original angry voice of contemporary art.
From the moment Steadman first meets Twinge in a London bookshop, it becomes his quest to get to the heart of the genius's dark mystery, and to discover how, after Duchamp and the school of Dada, art lost its soul. Drawing inspiration from Twinge's fellow Doodaaaistsamong them Lily Potsdam (Whiplash Muralist), Schlemiel Weiss (Gnat's blood Organic Watercolorist) and Aaron Dickley (Primal Scream Environmentalist)Steadman proves to be a truly inspired biographer, matching Twinge drink for drink as he prepares for the great exhibition that will crown his life's work.
Illustrated throughout in color and black-and-white in Steadman's (and Twinge's) inimitable style, Doodaaa is a biography standing at the center of a hall of mirrors.
"What we have here is not only an amusing tale, but an important document in art history, an insider's account of what it has been like to be an artist at a time when the only apt artistic response to the atrocities of the twentieth century anyone has so far discovered is the aggressively inane and nonsensical art called Dada."Kurt Vonnegut
"Gavin Twinge is a hero for our times: subversive, inventive, world-bestriding, world-destroying. He is the Vishnu of vicissitude and the Jehova of juxtaposition. In Ralph Steadman, Twinge has found his apotheosis, his amanuensis, his Boswell."Will Self
"When Ralph Steadman takes a line for a walk, he usually marches it straight into a minefield. His scabrous exploding inkblots decorate this fictional autobiography, in which Raphael Steed, 'a paragon of gullibility,' plays boozy Boswell to Gavin Twinge, artist and provocateur. Twinge (pronounced 'Twarnge') and his family pop up throughout 20th-century culture, from his great-aunt Vera (an extra in Battleship Potemkin) to his probable father, a feckless Beat poet. Twinge himself is a Doodaaaist, the artistic equivalent of being taken shortlet's make the work right here! An artistic movement, but also a bodily one, its adherents are committed to 'their senseless involvement in the daft game of life.' Duchamp is the presiding genius and plumbing is raised to an artistic creed. Steadman's centrifugal preoccupations spin off in all directions, laboriously ranting and joshing along in what reads like a series of bibulous postcards from the last days of Gonzo."The Guardian
"New Yorker cartoonist and Hunter S. Thompson collaborator Steadman sends up modern art with this energetic combination of solemn aesthetics and oddball satire. The book is a fictional 'triography' of one Gavin Twinge, leader of the 'Doodaaa group,' a coterie of avant-garde artists loosely based on the Dada movement. Paragons of bohemian excess, Twinge and company go on epic drinking binges and push the boundaries of art with bizarre experimental pieces in which they paint with gnat blood or heat up beer cans until they explode onto a canvas . . . Amusing . . . [Steadman has a] fertile comic 6imagination."Publishers Weekly
Review
"What we have here is not only an amusing tale, but an important document in art history, an insider's account of what it has been like to be an artist at a time when the only apt artistic response to the atrocities of the twentieth century anyone has so far discovered is the aggressively inane and nonsensical art called Dada."—Kurt Vonnegut
"Gavin Twinge is a hero for our times: subversive, inventive, world-bestriding, world-destroying. He is the Vishnu of vicissitude and the Jehova of juxtaposition. In Ralph Steadman, Twinge has found his apotheosis, his amanuensis, his Boswell."—Will Self
"New Yorker cartoonist and Hunter S. Thompson collaborator Steadman sends up modern art with this energetic combination of solemn aesthetics and oddball satire. The book is a fictional 'triography' of one Gavin Twinge, leader of the 'Doodaaa group,' a coterie of avant-garde artists loosely based on the Dada movement. Paragons of bohemian excess, Twinge and company go on epic drinking binges and push the boundaries of art with bizarre experimental pieces in which they paint with gnat blood or heat up beer cans until they explode onto a canvas . . . Amusing . . . [Steadman has a] fertile comic imagination."—Publishers Weekly
Synopsis
Ralph Steadman, the creator of his own inimitable visions of Freud and Leonardo,
Alice,
Animal Farm and Hunter S. Thompson's infamous
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, has written the world's first triography: a life of his artistic alter ego, the redoubtable Gavin Twinge, as told to Raphael Steed.
Twinge, last remnant of a nineteenth-century domestic-engineering dynasty, founder of the Doodaa school, and pioneer of Barcode Art, Shredded Literature, Centrifugal Abstracts and the 'Philosophy of French Plumbing', is the original angry voice of contemporary art.
From the moment Steed first meets Twinge in a London Bookshop, it becomes his quest to get to the heart of the mystery and discover what makes Twinge tick and how, after Duchamp and the school of Dada, art lost its soul. Whether he has to penetrate the south of France by London Taxi or witness the creation of the first Aerial Abstract as Gavin plummets from the skies over Margate in a hired Cessna, Steed sticks by his man, matching him drink for drink, as he prepares for the great exhibition that will crown his life's work.
Illustrated throughout in colour and black and white in the author's inimitable style, Doodaaa is a work of comic genius.
Synopsis
Ralph Steadman's alter-autobiography is a work of comical genius as well as a profound commentary on the state of contemporary art.
Creator of his own inimitable visions of Freud, Leonardo, Orwell, Alice, and the Great Gonzo, Steadman now offers the triography of his artistic alter ego, the redoubtable Gavin Twinge. Twinge, last remnant of a nineteenth-century 'domestic engineering' dynasty, founder of the Doodaaa school, and pioneer of Barcode Art, Shredded Literature, and Centrifugal Abstraction, is the original angry voice of contemporary art.
From the moment Steadman first meets Twinge in a London bookshop, it becomes his quest to get to the heart of the misery that drives the lost soul of Art. Drawing inspiration from Twinge's fellow Doodaaists-among them Lily Potsdam (Whiplash Muralist), Schlemiel Weiss (Gnat's blood Organic Watercolorist) and Aaron Dickley (Primal Scream Environmentalist)-Steadman proves to be a truly inspired biographer, matching Twinge drink for drink as he prepares for the great exhibition that will crown his life's work. Illustrated throughout in color and black-and-white in Steadman's (and Twinge's) inimitable style, Doodaa is a biography standing at the center of a hall of mirrors.
About the Author
Ralph Steadman, artist, writer, sculptor, political cartoonist and designer of labels for vintage wines, is the author of over fifty illustrated books, including
Sigmund Freud, I Leonardo, The Big I am, The Scar-strangled Banner, Alice, and
Animal Farm. He is the Gardening Correspondent for Rolling Stone and illustrator of Hunter S. Thompson's
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. His work appears regularly in such publications as
The New Yorker, The New York Times, GQ, Esquire, and the
L.A. Times.