Silhouettes from Popular Culture by Olly Moss

The holidays are upon us and if you truly want to impress someone who adores TV and Movies with the perfect stocking stuffer, THIS IS IT. We’ve followed acclaimed artist Olly Moss and some of his work for some time here at Beyond the Marquee and now we are thrilled to have been given the chance by our good pals over at Titan Books to review his eagerly awaited first book; Silhouettes from Popular Culture. This book truly puts TV and Movie buffs to the challenge by seeing how recognizable some of our favorite pop culture and cult icons can be identified…as Victorian art of silhouette portraits. Read ahead for our review.

Willy Wonka, the cast of Seinfeld, Batman, the Terminator, the Dude, Kermit the Frog, Inspector Gadget, even Robocop, all characters you’d spot in a second and instantly recognize who they were and what television show or film they were from, but, now strip away everything from them except their profile’s outline…and then see how well you’d identify them! That’s the fun in this 70 page+ book containing over 300 laser cut portraits of today’s most popular cult characters from movies, TV, comics and video games in a turn of the century Victorian style. To put it simply, it’s beyond brilliant.

Silhouettes from Popular Culture by Olly Moss

A Saul Bass of the modern era, Olly has quickly become a hit over the years with a very minimal and simple style and modest color palette on all his works which take a fresh approach to the most iconic movies and tv show’s of the past few decades.

In this beautiful hardcover book which Olly introduces himself, he explains his love for the silhouette, saying “There is, in all of art history, no simpler way of capturing a likeness – and I’d always thought that making pop-culture infused silhouettes would be a devious way of sneaking girlfriend-safe nerd art onto the walls of my own home”.

Silhouettes from Popular Culture by Olly Moss

This book truly makes you appreciate the power that hair, hats, accessories, strong facial features and a splash of color can have when creating a character for a visual production because that is what sells these silhouettes so brilliantly. Whether it’s the nose of Carl Fredricksen from Disney/Pixar’s UP or the entanglement of a mop-top of Kramer from Seinfeld, you’ll see exactly what I mean when you thumb thru this book. A MUST HAVE for any art collector and movie nerd, pick up Silhouettes from Popular Culture by Olly Moss at Titan Book’s website, or via Amazon, it’s extremely affordable and a no-brainer!

Silhouettes from Popular Culture by Olly Moss