Old Cool
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| Window of Opportunity |
On: Ed Ruscha Has Plenty More to Say About America
It’s cool to call something "old school," but it’s the "old cool" that is the main distinction, and whether it continues to have an influence. Typically, it tends to die out.
I love Ruscha. He is the old-school cool, born at the very beginning of the Silent Generation. With Ruscha, or any pop or contemporary artist of that era, you realize the influence of all the post-WWII pop culture—the cars, the music, films, the part of the country they were born in, and where they ultimately resided.
My late cousin (born in 1930) ironically never liked Bebop, even though he played jazz that was at least partially influenced by it (using a Bud Powell technique for example). We assume that 20-somethings will automatically like current pop culture--or perhaps pop cultures are never alike. The pop culture of 20-somethings in 2025 will definitely be different if it exists at all.
This is an interesting photo of a German teen in the Weimar German subcultures of the 1920s--the epitome of Cool post-WWI, but not the same as American Cool or French Cool post-WWII, but still looks cool 100 years later.
It’s cool to call something "old school," but it’s the "old cool" that is the main distinction, and whether it continues to have an influence. Typically, it tends to die out.
I love Ruscha. He is the old-school cool, born at the very beginning of the Silent Generation. With Ruscha, or any pop or contemporary artist of that era, you realize the influence of all the post-WWII pop culture—the cars, the music, films, the part of the country they were born in, and where they ultimately resided.
My late cousin (born in 1930) ironically never liked Bebop, even though he played jazz that was at least partially influenced by it (using a Bud Powell technique for example). We assume that 20-somethings will automatically like current pop culture--or perhaps pop cultures are never alike. The pop culture of 20-somethings in 2025 will definitely be different if it exists at all.
This is an interesting photo of a German teen in the Weimar German subcultures of the 1920s--the epitome of Cool post-WWI, but not the same as American Cool or French Cool post-WWII, but still looks cool 100 years later.
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| August Sander, "The High-school student" (1926) |
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