Friday, January 9, 2015

Occupied Spaces

'Occupied Spaces'
by Brad Johannsen
Harmony Books, 1977
If, during the late 70s, you opened a copy of the Publishers Central Bureau mail order catalog of remaindered and overstocked books.....
.....you were certain to see listed one Occupied Spaces, a book of psychedelic artwork by Brad Johannsen.

Occupied Spaces (48 pp) was published by Harmony Books, a sub-imprint of Crown Books, who were the kingpin of remainder publishing and marketing in the 70s. They remain a force in retail bookselling even today, providing the 'bargain books' titles you see on the tables at the front of every Barnes and Noble.

Spaces contains some striking, intricate artwork, interspersed with excerpts of text and poems from sources as diverse as Arthur Rimbaud, science writer Louis Thomas, 'The Practice of Zen', and Johannsen himself.
Needless to say, Spaces belonged to that unique category of '70s stoner' art that Heavy Metal was soon to represent in such mannered glory......
Whether you are motivated by nostalgia, or the desire for appropriate visual accompaniment to getting stoned, Spaces is worth investigating. Copies in good condition can be had from your usual online retailers for reasonable prices.

Johannsen provided cover artwork for a number of books and record albums during the 70s. These include album covers for two LPs from the Canadian group Lighthouse: 'Thoughts of Movin' On', and 'One Fine Morning'. An interesting, if rather esoteric, article about the fonts used for the album cover of 'One Fine Morning' is available here.

Johannsen contributed art to 'High Tide', an illustrated compendium of stories and poems from Herman Hesse and Lao Tzu (.......very 70s.......) published in 1972. Unfortunately, used copies of High Tide are very pricey (starting at $95).
I periodically do a Google search using his name, but sadly, information about Brad Johannsen remains scantInterestingly, one of the reviewers of High Tide at amazon.com relates an anecdote about meeting Johannsen:

I happened to meet Brad Johannsen in a conference room floating about the New York Public Library, where he opened a drawing book, borrowed some colored pencils from the art department, and instantly created a cover for a small booklet ... for cash (Brad was broke). Brad didn't own a single copy of his own books, and he had an interview coming up... so we agreed to meet again and I gave him my copy of his second book, Occupied Spaces.

Unfortunately, online searches for additional information about Brad Johannsen turn up little else. He was present when someone met Steve Wonder......and that's about all I could find.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for showing some of Brads drawings. He was truly the BEST artist of the day back then. If you see him again tell him Pete W says hi.

crateaholic said...

you may write to me about Brad Johannsen and his body of work and publishing at recordbot@gmail.com

Daniel's hat. said...

I searched his name on facebook, and came across an obituary dated november 2011

VELVEETA HEARTBREAK Michael J Bowman said...

Thanks for posting these beautiful paintings

Nadar said...

Can you provide the link to that Facebook page?

Anonymous said...

Hello. Greeting. Sweet Salute. My name is Mr. Gray. Am I to understand Writing to you in Ernest hopes to acknowledge Mr. Brad Johannson and his body of Art? Much regards. JNG

tarbandu said...

JNG, I periodically update this post with what little additional information I can find in internet searches for, and about, Brad Johannsen. Sadly, it's not much.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for posting this bit of history about Brad Johannsen. I was a close friend of Brad's and own a number of his works including an oil painting that might be his only existing work in oil. I also own the original of the second ink "painting" from the top. Unfortunately because he worked in ink its faded badly over the decades. I keep it in a closet away from any light.
Brad loved the music of Jimi Hendrix, Little Feat, Niel Young and Joni Michelle, was stubborn as a mule, had a wonderful sense of humor, possessed a great deal of knowledge about history and was a loyal friend. He also hated computers. But I believe he'd be gratified by the proliferation of his art on the web. So thank you again for this post.
M. Suall NYC

Anonymous said...

Joni Mitchell.....( dang auto spell)

tarbandu said...

Anonymous, if you want to email me a photo(s) of your Johannsen picture(s) I will see it I can't post them here. Provide your email if you are willing, and I'll contact you.

tarbandu

Anonymous said...

Hello,
JSNY99XX@gmail.com