Post #386100 by TikiTres on Tue, Jun 10, 2008 4:48 PM

What defines tiki art.... it's a very worthy question and a very difficult one to answer. Artists have traditionally shunned any kind of control or limitations, anyone who tries to impose rules on art is seen as inhibiting freedom of expression. Artists stray far and wide from their source material and if anyone dares to mention that fact then they are quickly rebuffed as not having understanding and/ or insight. Duchamp's urinal was selected as THE most influential modern artwork of all time by a panel of art "experts":

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4059997.stm

Decades later people still debate about whether that urinal is "art" or not. Different people have widely varying views on what is and is not "art". The same would follow for "tiki art", we could post examples here and I imagine there would be wide disagreements on whether it is or is not tiki.

However, I think it's always healthy to discuss these things anyway as we all gain a deeper understanding of what our personal beliefs are. When I hear "tiki art" I tend to thing of something that has a mid-century look and feel to it; like certain Witco stuff (NOT the conquistador series, I'm thinking of stuff like the tiki fountains, masks, some wall hangings, etc). But it doesn't have to actually be mid-century, work by SHAG, Bosko & others have that feel too. Personally I don't think mugs fall under the "tiki art" umbrella, they are a form of expression in and of themselves that most people readily label as "tiki mug". Or maybe "tiki mug" is a subset of "tiki art".

I'm interested in hearing what others have to say about this since I'm still pretty new to this scene :)