Who is Milton Springsteen?

Street art's profile rises in NZ 

Back in 2009 street art wasn't an art movement that NZers were particularly familiar with, we knew about graffiti (and that in general this was a bad thing) and I wasn't sure what to call artworks that were on the street before they were prints (aerosol art anyone?).  This began to change with the phenomenal rise into popular consciousness of the British street artist Banksy, and American artist Shepard Fairey's Hope poster for Barack Obama which became the enduring image of Obama's first campaign that is now symbolic of the mood behind the election of the US's first African American president.

But the rise of popular awareness and widespread enjoyment of street art in New Zealand can probably be traced to the efforts of one man in that year, George Shaw, and this started with the first Oi You Festival of Street Art held in Nelson in 2009.  When Oi You moved to Christchurch post earthquakes (as Rise) this turned into the most popular art exhibition the city had ever had and changed the face of Christchurch city forever.

Arrival of the artist known as Milton Springsteen

Fries with That? by Milton Springsteen

One of the intriguing names associated with the street art festivals was Milton Springsteen.  This anonymous artist created artworks known as the "Corrupt Classics", these paintings were also available as limited edition prints which sold briskly to festival goers as well as being stocked here at NZ Fine Prints.  We rapidly sold out of these editions - although a couple took a while longer to sell out (a riff on Van der Velden's Otira Gorge series did not not have the same immediate appeal as a re-working of NZ's most popular painting).

When the prints sold out my inner journalist got the better of me and I decided to see if I could find out who Milton Springsteen actually was once and for all.

On the trail of the artist's identity

Customers assumed we would know the artist's identity but kept it a secret, however we never dealt with the artist directly, the prints were sent to us from Nelson or we would pick them up from George who stayed at the YMCA in Christchurch while the street art festivals were on.  We had profiled who we thought might be the kind of person who would have the appreciation of NZ's art history as well as the artistic skills to recreate paintings in the style of Bill Hammond or Colin McCahon but although we thought we knew at the time who Milton was there was no name attached.

But should we tell who it is?

It was lots of fun playing the amateur art sleuth and eventually I was pretty sure that we have our guy (yep, we think Milton is male).  But then just as I had got to the bottom of the mystery this week a customer happened to ask us point blank via email if we knew who Milton Springsteen was - and at that moment I realised that although it was a hoot to track him down would revealing who it is spoil the fun once an owner of one of his prints knows the artist's real identity? And aside from that I began feeling nervous that revealing who the artist is would A) annoy George Shaw who we think has been a tremendous force for good in the NZ art world and B) Cause Mr Springsteen any sleepless nights for no good reason.

Dilemma resolved... 

So as with any moral dilemma in the modern age we decided to put this to the vote.  Putting a poll on our Facebook page and on Twitter, 100% of votes cast were to reveal the artist's identity, but the small number of votes meant this wasn't very helpful at all!

And then it came to me, we can reveal who we think Milton Springsteen is without spoiling the mystery of his actual identity.  And here's how we can do it. We think this person is Milton Springsteen.  Are we right?

New Blood Pop launches NZ Fine Prints' urban art collection.

Princess 1.1 by NBP (aka Brad Novak)

Not all contemporary non fine art is street art.  But there is a subtle change afoot when artists who have moved from Pop to Street to Urban Art like Brad Novak bring out new prints that have built on this progressive foundation to create something new.  Brad's new series under the moniker "New Blood Pop" takes iconography familiar to New Zealanders but not exclusive to us and shows these historical and cultural figures in a new light.

This is what Brad has to say about his remix of pop in a more urban art direction. “New Blood Pop is concerned with how we experience life itself, the 21st century issues we face such as inequalities in wealth and health, sustainability and globalization. I’m also interested in the idea of escapism especially through science fiction and the superhero franchise. Of the things we choose to believe, what’s real, and what’s not? These works are global, flagrant, iconic and ironic.

I endeavour to create powerful multi-layered works, with an emblazoned foreground overlaying a “veiled” background, to show that many of us are living life through a distorting veil, clouding our perception. Our awareness tainted by biases and judgments – a fantasy that we’ve created for ourselves – the practice of mindfulness promises salvation.”

We stock the new series of prints under Brad's moniker “New Blood Pop”, or “NBP76”,  all these new prints are hand-collaged and stencil-spray-painted artworks which involve the layering of popular imagery like the Princess Leia portrait shown here which is for sale at $695, available in an edition of just 35 signed and numbered screenprints.

From pop art to urban style: The evolving prints of Brad Novak

For so long pop art has been the genre that many contemporary artists felt comfortable being labelled with.  However with the pop art movement now nearly 50 years old there has recently been a shift toward a more urban feel in contemporary art, heavily influenced by the most exciting thing in modern art right now - street art.

Auckland printmaker Brad Novak's career has bridged this change of tone.  Novak's butterfly tiki prints were firmly in the NZ pop art tradition but he has recently taken on a harder, more urban edge whilst still retaining this strong sense of NZ identity.  

Brad Novak "Reservoir Birds"
Limited Edition Screenprint

His new Reservoir Birds print references both the cult movie "Reservoir Dogs" and the bird paintings of Christchurch painter Bill Hammond.  However he brings a grittier sensibility to this new print that is clearly post-Banksy - you could imagine this image stencilled onto the wall of an alleyway in downtown New Zealand.

Here is Brad Novak's video, "The making of Reservoir Birds" filmed at Artrite screenprinting studios in Auckland.  The print is available for sale here.  Please note the black paper version was not able to be released due to a fault with the batch of ink used, the white paper print is the only version that is for sale at New Zealand Fine Prints.

The exhibition that will change Christchurch forever

“Rise” at the Canterbury Museum (and beyond with the “Big Walls” component of the show) will be Christchurch's most influential art exhibition since an alternative exhibition to the Canterbury Society of Arts annual show was put on by “The Group” in 1927.

This single exhibition will inspire a transformation of the visual culture of Christchurch in the years to come. The excitement surrounding "Rise" is not just the sheer joy of seeing for real superb artworks from the art movement that will define our generation but also the way that the creative sails of the new Christchurch are being filled with an inspirational gale.

The Canterbury Museum director Anthony Wright should be knighted for taking the bold step of hosting “Rise”.  Nurturing our community through a strengthening of our culture in a time of need - it's a landmark step in the evolution of the role of the modern museum.  

With the art gallery out of commission and large spaces hard to find hosting "Rise" at Canterbury Museum shows a brave and open minded attitude about the museum’s role in the Christchurch of today.  “Rise” is going to be such a momentous event because it is about the people who are going to see it as much as being about the artists whose work is on show.  Street art is the punk rock of art, the movement that inspires a generation of people to take up an art form because through the lens of something new they catch a glimpse of their own inner artist.  Street art is accessible, inclusive - and as will be shown in Christchurch post "Rise", transformative.

The Oi YOU team have clearly built a professional businesslike organisational structure to put on a blockbuster like “Rise” (7500 visitors in the first few days). With a history of two successful shows in organisers George Shaw and Shannon Webster’s hometown of Nelson, then taking their collection to Sydney and Adelaide the unique catalyst aspect of the event has grown using an exhibition of their superb personal collection of street art as the occasion for local and international street artists to complete works commissioned specially for the show.

Essentially it's the attitude of street art that is just so universally appealing. It was the spilling over of the exhibition into the main museum that tickled me, whimsical wordplay, sly commentary and placing of objects springing from an intelligent cultural awareness.  The mysterious Milton Springsteen’s paintings were fine examples of how you can subvert and transform most effectively if you first take the time to gain a deep appreciation and understanding of your source material.

To see prints by NZ artists such as Component’s fishing boy “Life is a Lottery” looking perfectly at ease next to Banksy is as thrilling for a New Zealander as having Lorde at the top of the global charts. 

Street art will save Christchurch from blandness in a rebuild driven by engineers rather than imagineers.  Sofles piece behind where our gallery and warehouses were on Hereford St is particularly poignant for us, it’s that mix of skill, imagination and connectedness that makes art meaningful over the long term, we talk of finding a print that “resonates” with a customer, it’s so much more useful and deeper than finding what someone simply “likes”.

This is the only exhibition I am insisting my non arty friends go to see.  I want every teacher to arrange a class trip (Rise runs until 23 March 2014 so there is plenty of time in the new school year). Every Christchurch person who doesn’t think they like art should go too - as street art is the perfect gateway drug that can turn people on to how much fun and enjoyment there is in the world of art.   As Banksy himself has shown if you can reach the market of people who don’t buy prints this is many times larger than the market of people who regularly do, likewise “Rise” is the way to engage with people put off by the thicket of theory that envelopes contemporary art. 

The only negative is that annoying feeling of the world discovering your favourite band!  Street art is the most exciting thing in the art world right now and to have “Rise” transforming your hometown in a globally significant way is only just a little bit short of unbelievable.   Street art is the art movement of now and because of the unique situation of Christchurch post earthquake “Rise” will be a pivotal show when art history grads of 2114 are researching the impact of this exciting art movement across the world.

NZ Street Art Series by Milton Springsteen

"Not So Square" by NZ street artist Milton Springsteen

NZ street artist Milton Springsteen's reworks of famous NZ paintings demonstrates more than a casual appreciation of NZ art history - as you can see shown in the pictures that illustrate this article.  Springsteen's "Corrupt Classics" is the first series of street art style prints that reference the artistic traditions of NZ on the New Zealand market. The selection of artworks to parody from painters such as Dick Frizzell, Bill Hammond and Robin White has got us wondering about the background of the artist known as Milton Springsteen.  From the beginning we were pretty certain Springsteen wasn't George Shaw (organiser of Nelson's Oi You street art festival where Springsteen's artwork first appeared) because the artists' knowledge (that veers toward reverence) of the classics of NZ painting doesn't fit with someone who has only been in NZ since 2009.  We don't think these artworks are the prints of a teenage graffiti artist either, this is someone who has studied their NZ painters carefully enough to imitate their style, a practising artist who has received their art education through the NZ school system and we'd wager at art school as well.

Street Art style Bill Hammond

Surrounded every day with the iconic works of famous NZ painters (these, after all, are exactly the kind of paintings of which reproduction fine art prints are made) the Corrupt Classics were received with delight as well as some degree of trepidation here at NZ Fine Prints.  We couldn't wait to surprise visitors to our gallery with the collision of the street art ethos and fine art, however this was mixed with anxiety at the idea of offending some of our favourite artists. Dick Frizzell?  Not worried about his reaction to "Not so Square" as he's NZ's pioneer of the notion popularized most recently by commentator Kirby Ferguson as "everything is a re-mix" and has even recently collaborated with his street artist son Otis with graffiti style paintings in the "Blockbusters" show, but Dame Robin White (who had recently given us permission to re-publish this fascinating interview about her early forays into printmaking), what was she going to think about her Maketu Fish & Chip shop apparently vandalised in "Fries with That"?

However after contemplating this series of street art style re-mixes released by the artist known as Milton Springsteen in our gallery for several weeks now our conclusion is not that s/he is sneering at these classic NZ paintings, Springsteen is, well, simply remixing them, to "cast sharp light on the anomolies of the modern world."  To us it's humorous (we smirk especially at the Hammondesque "Know How, Can Do") and the prints humour echoes the surprising lightness in the social commentrary of fellow street artist Banksy, whose revolutionary use of wit was as clear a break from the previously rather heavy (agressive/macho) grafitti scene in Bristol as was his use of stencils.

NZ Street Art collides with NZ Fine Art in "Fries with That"

Street artists have a tradition of anonymity due to the illegal nature of urban art, it's self-defeating to sign with a tag that is your own name if you are breaking the law. Unmasking the artists behind street art nom de plumes is not in the spirit of the game. Now we stock prints of his work we are often asked Who is Banksy? and although this writer knows the answer telling people is like revealing the murderer before someone goes to see a whodunit, the tiny thrill of sharing something you know and they don't is not worth spoiling the show. So, yes, we think we know exactly who NZ street artist Milton Springsteen is but we are not telling!

The Fishbomb Prints - Frizzell & Son street art collaboration

Just when you thought you had finally untangled NZ artists known as Frizzell (see our helpful Frizzell disambiguation article) along came Dick and Otis' street art collaboration, the so called "Fishbomb" series they painted under the moniker "Frizzell & Son".  This intergeneration collaboration between Dick "the godfather of NZ pop art" (as he was bemused to be introduced as on TVNZ's Good Morning progamme recently) and Otis, one of NZ's best known street artists, came about on the occasion of the recent Blockbusters exhibition held at Saatchi & Saatchi Gallery in Auckland.

Courtesy of The Area you can watch the creation of this series of graffiti style paintings in the above video of Dick & Otis Frizzell painting at The Area April 29th 2012.

There are four 'fish bomb"prints available, editions of 50 with the Frizzell & Son logo beneath the image. Signed by both artists and numbered by hand. They feature in our growing collection of street art at NZ Fine Prints.

Kahawai Graffiti style painting by Frizzell & Son (Otis & Dick Frizzell) - limited edition prints now available here