Stephen Sprouse: Xerox/Rock/Art

Book excerpt: Drawings, color Xeroxes, swatch references and inspiration materials, Stephen Sprouse: Drawings and Ephemera encompasses the design work of Sprouse (1953-2004) from 1974 through the late 1980s, focusing the foundational period in which the designer effortlessly fused New York uptown glamour with the edgy vibe of the East Village. The works on paper included here reveal Sprouse's unmistakable energy: his facile and powerful inked lines, his use of the Xerox machine to apply vivid gouache color and his often capitalized marginalia all reveal the vibrant, unstoppable personality of a design genius. Even in these two figures, the uptown/downtown, high-end/punk tensions that pervade Sprouse's work is apparent