It may be apocrypha, but the story going around the Beach table is that when little Lou was crib-bound, a stack of magazines and newpapers were placed alongside the teddy bear and blanket. Lou would spend hours tearing the paper into little pieces. This early mess was the beginning of a collage career that has spanned 40 years.(It may have been the earliest known paper shredder as well.) Truth be told, there was no Beach table. The folks sitting around that plank eating kielbasa were actually named Lubicz. That’s pronounced “loo-beech”. And Lou’s birth name is Andrzej Jerzy Gregor Lubicz-Ledochowski. Why he would change it to Lou Beach has been a source of no small consternation to his mother, but a blessing to receptionists everywhere. Mother Emily was a survivor of slave labor camps and Father George was a freed POW and hero of the Polish Underground. Andrzej was born in Gottingen, Germany where George attended University in the occupied British Zone. Emigrating (a very rough sea voyage secured in him a strong dislike of bunkbeds and vomiting) to the US at the age of 4 with his Polish parents, little Andrzej found himself in Rochester, NY, the only child in preschool who could speak Polish and German but no English. His forceful personality was forged from days in the sandbox socking anyone who didn’t understand his polite European requests to please throw the ball or share the green crayon. Early years in working class ethnic neighborhoods (living between Kosciuszko and Warsaw Streets ) kept him close to his Polish roots. English was discouraged at home,but like the comic books and Mad Magazines that were also taboo, “sneaking” made these forbidden fruits so much the sweeter and probably lead to Andy’s anti-authoritarian leanings, as well as an immersion in pop culture. Andy was a popular, if not exceptionally gifted, high school student. His only formal art training occurred here when he enrolled in an art class but soon found himself at loggerheads with the teacher for drawing green hands and blue bears. He received a C+ for his efforts. He did better as class clown. He was a member of several clubs and school organizations and decorated the gym for the Senior Prom for which he came up with the title “Tcartsba”….the theme was abstract art… and he persuaded the local art museum to lend the school dozens of copies of paintings for the dance. After two years at a junior college where he earned an A.A. ( Associate of Arts ) degree, which came in handy when he started drinking heavily, he stepped up to the State University in Buffalo, where he majored in gin rummy. A short stint on a factory assembly line convinced him to accept a ride to California with a friend, thus ending what might have been a formidable academic career. Two weeks of sleeping on his friend’s floor in a crummy Hollywood apartment readied him for his next venue….a makeshift “commune” on the beach just over the Ventura county line, where tripping was, well, trippy. Hitchhiking to San Francisco and sleeping on more floors, not to mention being chased down Haight Street by a phalanx of helmeted riot police, left Lou longing for SoCal. He shortly returned and met a gal who owned a lingerie shop. He was always quite willing to help out in the store. They soon set up housekeeping together and Andy started making collages and assemblages in earnest, even selling some pieces and being included in small local gallery exhibits. While working at the legendary Free Press Bookstrore he spent much time pouring over books which greatly influenced his thinking and artistic style: books on Surrealism, Max Ernst, Hannach Hoch, John Heartfield, Romare Bearden, Kurt Schwitters. The couple decided to go to Europe and so drove across the country in a 1950 Ford panel truck. The truck broke down in Boston, along with their relationship. Andy stayed on and soon became the sexton of the venerable Arlington St. Church, living in its basement apartment and creating many collages which eventually were hung in his first one-man show at the new Boston Center for the Arts. An art patron appeared like an angel and whisked him,girlfriend and dog off to Martha’s Vineyard to live in a 10 bedroom beachhouse. A couple of years of the good life saw him ready to once again move on, this time to Albuquerque and finally back to Los Angeles. Before leaving in 1973 he executed art for his very first record album cover…for Rounder Records. And was paid $45. Meeting with an old friend in L.A. who had become an exec at A&M, he was asked to make art for a record cover and his career in the music industry took off like a meteor….a small light, far away. It was at this point that he chose to become Lou Beach, once again in deference to receptionists and perplexing his mother even more. A Grammy nomination for his cover art for Weather Reports’ “Heavy Weather” album made him a favorite of art directors in the music business as well as a much sought after editorial illustrator, working for major publications such as Wired, The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, Harper’s, The Los Angeles Times and the New York Times (where he was a regular contributor to the Book Review) among many others. He has worked as well creating film poster art, book covers and advertising illustrations. He has been a popular instructor of editorial illustration at Art Center College of Design and Otis Parsons College of Design. Lou has created memorable cover art for acts as diverse as Ray Manzarek, The Carpenters, Blink 182, The Neville Brothers, Dave Alvin and Ethel Merman. He has garnered many graphic arts awards and has been a frequent speaker at trade and academic functions. An early adaptor of computers, Lou has never let the technology dictate the style or content of his work. According to Steve Heller, the art director of The New York Times Book Review: A recent return to his X-acto and glue roots has seen the emergence of a new body of collages showing in galleries to popular and critical acclaim. He is married to photographer Issa Sharp and lives in an old house in Los Angeles with his son Sam, an inspired artist, and a bunch of animals. His daughter Alpha is following in his footsteps as well, creating beautiful collages and paintings. |