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The Art

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Art Chantry

Chantry is probably best known for expanding on the bristling low-tech aesthetic of punk music, in posters and album covers for bands like Nirvana, Hole and the Sonics, as well as lesser-known groups like the Cramps, the Lord High Fixers, Mono Men and Bert. These works reflect an omnivorous talent for the incisive recycling of vintage images, usually with a handmade look that Chantry calls “roughed up.”

His work alternates between the surgically precise and the roughly thrown-together. Among his sources are ’60s psychedelic posters, wholesome ’50s advertising (including pages from tool catalogs and grocery store circulars) and Monty Python’s gloss on Edwardian illustration—usually presented with a sense of clashing social values. These are underscored by techniques like torn-edge collage, taped images, messy script, punch-printed lettering, startling juxtapositions and endless variations on the possibilities of photographic graininess achieved by repeated photocopying. His gift for language is especially prominent in a poster in his influential “tool style” that features a policeman extolling the benefits of condoms: “250,000 times cheaper than the average child!!”

Basically, Mr. Chantry seems never to have met an image or a technique that he couldn't bend to his own or his client's advantage. If you don't happen to be steeped in the history of graphic design, punk rock or the Seattle underground—or even if you are—his gritty inventiveness gives this show the force of revelation.

Born in Seattle in 1954 and reared there and in Tacoma, Washington, Mr. Chantry is largely self-taught. He returned to Seattle in the late 1970’s, and in the early ’80s became the art director of the Rocket, a monthly music magazine. He also emerged as a graphic designer known for quick turnarounds and innovative (and cheap) ideas about production.

Related Info

• Art Chantry Design Co.
• Estrus Interview With Art Chantry

Chantry seems never to have met an image or a technique that he couldn't bend to his own or his client's advantage.