love is how you spend your time
Baseman has been one of my favourite contemporary artist/ illustrators since I first saw his work. There’s something Surrealist about it which I suppose appeals to my nostalgia - I had a childhood obsession with Surrealism. Yet his work has a unique contemporary flavour. I enjoy the way he playfully expresses complex emotion through visceral often violent bodies of his characters. There’s perhaps a touch of Ralph Steadman there although the style is very different.
I didn’t think much of his work when I first saw it. Recently I looked through some of it again and really enjoyed it. I find it funny and interesting how I can feel really strongly about work and how this changes over time - how experience changes taste. Sometimes something really boring becomes really interesting. Anyway, now I love Norman Catherine.
I’ve loved his work since I first saw it perhaps five years ago. The more I look at it the more I love it.