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The ‘father of underground comics’, ‘Brueghel of our time’ and ‘non-aligned political crank’, are only a few of the many labels attributed to cartoonist Robert Crumb over the last 40 years. Like earlier social commentators George Grosz and Otto Dix, or English caricaturists, George Cruikshank and James Gillray, Crumb’s work has shocked, entertained and challenged the imaginations of generations of readers.
Born in Philadelphia in 1943, Crumb never studied art but began drawing homemade comic books and greeting cards from an early age. In 1967, he moved to San Francisco where he invented some of his most enduring characters, including Mr. Natural, Schuman the Human, Flakey Foont and the hedonistic Fritz the Cat. Crumb instantly became a counter-cultural icon whose rambling, explicit satirical cartoons provide a visual expression of the time.
His output since 1967 has been colossal – the acid-inspired romps of the 1960s giving way to relatively sober, introspective dialogues and biting indictments of American culture. Through brutally honest autobiographical accounts, Crumb registers the banal and unconsciously humorous everyday. He remains a highly controversial figure frequently exposing the cynical underbelly of a free, capitalist society. His hard-hitting, obscene and politically incorrect rants have provided an asylum for marginalised non-conformists. In Crumb’s own words, the cumulative effect of his 40 years worth of drawings provides ‘a grand tour of the American unconscious’.
A version of this exhibition was originally presented at the 2004/05 Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh.
With support from
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