The exhibition in New York will feature tear sheets which span the entirety of R Crumb's prolific career, encompassing numerous pages from his comic books, several of his magazine and album covers, sixties- and seventies-era broadsides, and tabloids from San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury, Oakland, Manhattan’s Lower East Side, and other counterculture enclaves as well as exhibition ephemera and other printed matter. Crumb, Sketchbook, 1979-1981 © Robert Crumb, 1979-1981, Courtesy the artist, Paul Morris and David Zwirner Exhibition Highlights He often collaborates with his wife and underground comic artist, Aline Kominsky-Crumb. Strange, hilarious and often obscene, these comic books often possess a personal touch, related to the artist's own experiences and personal life. As he once explained, comics are "where all the crazy subconscious stuff comes out." R Crumb's art centered around his fascinations and fixations on large, sturdily-built women and the American culture of the 1920s and 1930s. Muscular yet vivacious cavewoman, gymnasts, and yetis are reoccurring motifs in his drawings, as are his sexual fantasies of being overpowered by strong women and his depiction of "little guys" crushed and infantilized by their own desires. Most of my adult life, I had this towering contempt for America. Savagely satirizing the culture and values of contemporary America, often with a psychedelic twist, R Crumb's art directly addressed political disillusionment, the never-ending battles between “squares” and bohemians, racial and gender stereotypes, sexual fantasies and fetishes, and the absurdities of social convention and conformity-themes that he also often explores through disturbing but hilariously abject self-caricature that dramatizes incidents in his own life and surroundings. Drawing extensively since he was a child, Crumb didn’t find many outlets for his work until he founded Zap in 1968, his iconic comic anthology which paved the way for many underground comics to come. Crumb, Sketchbook, 1979-1981 © Robert Crumb, 1979-1981, Courtesy the artist, Paul Morris and David Zwirner The Uniqueness of Robert Crumb ArtĮmerging during the 1960s, the American cartoonist Robert Crumb was instrumental in the formation of the underground comics scene of the period. In addition to these stunning works on paper, on display is a selection of rare sketchbooks and original drawings, further illuminating the practice of this cartoon legend. Crumb, the show features a wide array of printed matter culled from the artist’s archive: tear sheets of drawings and comics, taken directly from the publications where the works first appeared, as well as related ephemera. Titled Drawing for Print: Mind Fucks, Kultur Klashes, Pulp Fiction & Pulp Fact by the Illustrious R. We didn't have anyone standing over us.ĭavid Zwirner is currently hosting an exhibition which explores the mind and career of Robert Crumb. When people say 'What are underground comics?', I think the best way you can define them is just the absolute freedom involved. The extraordinary world he created is populated with now iconic characters such as Fritz the Cat, Mr Natural, Snoid, Shuman the Human, Flakey Foont and a range of bodacious and bold female characters. Throughout his decades-long practice, he has helped challenge and expand the boundaries of the graphic arts and redefined comics and cartoons as countercultural art forms. Perhaps the most prominent of the American underground cartoonists of the 1960s, Robert Crumb aka R Crumb has created a unique body of work which blends traditionalist cartoon illustration with a trippy sensibility and untethered libido.
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