Gudmundur Erró: Thunderbirds Meets Shunga
17 augustus 2018 
5 min. read

Gudmundur Erró: Thunderbirds Meets Shunga

The Icelandic artist Erró (1932), his real name is Guðmundur Guðmundsson, is well-known for his Pop Art compositions of illustrations inspired by comic books and commerce. He studied art (engraving, fresco and painting) at the academy of Oslo. After his study in 1958, he went to Paris where he is still based. His work is often compared to the earlier Pop artists such as Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol.

His Process

Everywhere Erró goes, he collects images from the media, cartoons, posters, papers) which he then selects, and brings together in an original, often humorous, way. In an interview he said that during his travels he searches everywhere from discount stores to kiosks. In the process he accumulates a lot of material, and when he comes across a lot of images with a similar theme, it’s a signal to start a series. Then he merges (“marries” in his words) them in order to make them into collages and paintings.

Disfigurements

For Erró painting is a place of experimentation, combining the old with the new. It’s a private form of utopia, the pleasure of contradicting the happiness of being alone against all, and the joy of cause. He tries to reveal and attack the disfigurements of our society, such as the consumer directed erotic mercantile revolutions, and the Americanization of the West.

Thunderbirds and Shunga

The following lithographs are from a series by Erró called ‘Made in Japan‘ (1972) and show us a joyful amalgamation of war, s.f. (the t.v. show Thunderbirds) and shunga (mainly Utamaro and Hokusai)…

Gudmundur Erro

Lithograph ‘Soldier Firing‘ (1972)

Gudmundur Erro

Lithograph ‘Thunderbird‘ (1972)

Gudmundur Erro

Lithograph ‘Thunderbird 2‘ (1972)

Gudmundur Erro

Lithograph ‘Fighter and Missile Launcher‘ (1972)

Inspired by Utamaro’s design from his ‘Poem of the Pillow (Utamakura)‘ series. More about this design in the following post.

Gudmundur Erro

Lithograph ‘Thunderbird 4‘ (1972)

Gudmundur Erro

Lithograph ‘Thunderbird 3‘ (1972)

Gudmundur Erro

Lithograph ‘Tunneler‘ (1972)

Below two erotically-charged paintings by Erro…

Nomad!‘ (1979)

Etiopia‘ (1973)

Click HERE and start exploring our special section on modern shunga…!!!

Source: Galerie Saint Martin

About the author
Marijn is the founder of shungagallery.com. With more than 20 years of experience within the sensual and erotic art of shunga he is an authority in the genre. During this time he served many customers with complementing their art collection.
Darya
By

Darya

on 19 Mar 2020

Love this technique! Recently I was thinking about that hippies' slogan 'Make love not war' in terms of its' strange nature. I mean, on the one hand, it's obvious that love and war are the opposite. On the other hand, when we look at the concept of love in human culture, we see that love is often compared to war: 'Mílitat ómnis amáns, et habét sua cástra Cupído' (Ovid.) - 'Every lover serves as a soldier, also Cupid has his own camp'. So all opposites are close to each other, as always.

Marijn
By

Marijn

on 19 Mar 2020

Thanks Darya, love how you draw parallels between Asian and Western (in this case Greek) culture...!!

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