His professional name is R Black and he has been working until now at the frontline of the Occupy protest movement.
But R Black has upgraded to an elite art form and his work is catching the eyes of the high and mighty.
He sees no contadiction on the change of role, telling Voice of San Diego: ‘Opera’s made by artists. Artists are typically liberal-type people.’
He continues: ‘I love posters with couples on them, in love. Especially for an art form like opera. So many people are involved in a partnership. When in relationships, I like looking at posters and feeling that — “Aw, falling in love again!”’
‘Much of my career has been drawing really thin, pin-up chicks. I like voluptuous women as well, and I like being able to capture them and make them sexy. I tried to do that with Aida and with the front of the opera poster.’ – R. Black
And, for balance, here are a couple of samples of his previous work. We really like his style.
Why not?
He is generally right that the opera houses are staffed by ‘liberal-type people’ even if the audiences are far conservatives. That is the contradiction.
Interesting poster design is what counts, although a bit too busy for true art, but that is the marketing people at work. They clearly don’t follow the six words rule, and make the dates and company name far too big. The simplicity of the color palette is wonderful, and well chosen.
Opera companies usually create a separate publicity universe for each opera of the season. Departing hugely from that, SDO ties the whole 2013 season together with R Black’s wonderful graphics, remniscent of Soviet poster art. My favorite is Murder in the Cathedral, which happens to be the opera I have tickets for … mmore informtion on the artist and his work.
http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/arts/article_d18a5c84-4afd-11e2-80d6-0019bb2963f4.html
Cool that the artist got some work,good graphic look.
BRAVO! for a working class blue collar artist.