ART CITIES:London-R.Crumb
Robert Crumb is universally acknowledged as the Godfather of underground comics, and is widely held up in some quarters as a counterculture icon in general as well. Through his pioneering Zap Comix in the ’60s, Crumb blew apart the conventions of the medium. Crumb’s creations such as Fritz The Cat, Mr. Natural, Flakey Foont, Angelfood McSpade, Mr. Snoid, Eggs Ackley, Forky O’Donnel and Devil Girl engage in weird and sometimes violent sex acts, take drugs and fight the law, all the while pondering life’s big questions.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: David Zwirner Gallery Archive
Crumb’s exhibition “Art & Beauty” features drawings from his Art & Beauty magazines. Initially published in 1996, the artist recently completed the 3rd volume in the series, and the exhibition marks the largest presentation of the project to date. R. Crumb helped define the cartoon and punk subcultures of the ‘60s and ‘70s with comic strips like Fritz the Cat, Mr. Natural, and Keep on Truckin’. The overt eroticism of his work paired with frequent self-deprecation and a free, almost stream-of-consciousness style have solidified his position as a renowned and influential artist, whose work addresses the absurdity of social conventions and political disillusionment. Combining iconography from comic books, art history, and popular culture “Art & Beauty” portrays a broad selection of images of female figures in diverse settings. The inspiration for the series is linked to Crumb’s avid collecting of vintage underground paraphernalia including records, flipbooks, and specifically, Art & Beauty, a catalogue published during the ‘20s and ‘30s featuring semi-erotic images of life models for art lovers and aspiring painters. Following a similar format as the older publication, Crumb has selected his own cast of female figures from tabloid celebrities, sport stars, life models, friends, and strangers, and accompanied them with journalistic-style commentary and quotations from other artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Paul Cézanne, and Andy Warhol. The poetic, even philosophical, prose mirrors the romanticized language of the former magazine, but becomes tinged with a subtle sarcasm and self-mockery that destabilizes the relationship between image and caption. Crumb humorously lets his own obsessions and fantasies merge with cultural stereotypes and bigotries from the past and present to create an at once personal and exaggerated typology of women.
Info: David Zwirner Gallery, 24 Grafton Street, London, Duration: 14/4-2/6/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:000, www.davidzwirner.com
