![]() ![]() Fritz the Cat became an overnight success, banking $100 million and becoming the most successful indie animated film of all time. Released in 1972, the film got rave reviews from Rolling Stone and The New York Times. ![]() Being picked up by Ralph Bakshi, the animated adaptation of Crumb’s very raw and street-level reality comic received an X rating. Fritz the Cat represents an extremely interesting and groundbreaking time in Crumb’s life and career. The exhibit features some true classics, including vintage original Fritz the Cat works. It is believe that the comix, which hit the stands in 1968 and lasted for 16 issues, have had a distribution in the neighborhood of 16 million.Ĭrumb gained cult popularity for pioneering Zap Comix and creating unique characters such as Fritz the Cat (a sexually explicit feline con artist) and Mr. After the success of the first issue, Crumb opened Zap’s pages to such legends as S.Clay Wilson, Robert Williams, and Rick Griffin. This is primarily due to his instigation of the legendary underground zine / comic book Zap Comix. As an illustrator, Crumb is universally acknowledged as the founder of the underground comic scene. ![]() Robert Crumb began his artistic career in the 1960s. Neglecting these connections would distort the value he brings to the moment: the claim that life’s direct intrusion upon the art-making process is legitimate, however radical, idiosyncratic, and alternative those influences may be. Crumb’s voice is realized through inspiring relationships with his era, community, and family. At the same time, the show recasts Crumb as a collaborative being in order to avoid the specious contention that Crumb’s rise was due to solitary genius. Presented in a contemporary fine arts environment, this exhibition confers on Crumb the full range of importance merited by his wide contributions to visual culture. This sentiment misses the truth of the matter, which is that the art world, having moved beyond its pronounced prejudice against the twin embarrassments of narrative and illustration, has only now caught up with Crumb and his earthy, hand-rendered passions. The irony of an outcast being the center of attention may signify to some an abdication of Crumb’s original iconoclastic fire. Although rejection of mainstream culture and high art has been a hallmark of Crumb’s adamantly alternative cultural vision, in the past few years the art world has cautiously embraced his work, which is exhibited in many of the world’s most prestigious art institutions and sold through blue-chip galleries. He combines the keen critical voice of the master satirist with some of the most impressive draftsmanship seen in contemporary visual art, and his work has proved endlessly insightful, controversial, and original. The work starkly depicts sex, violence, and race, among other subjects, offering revelatory insight into the human condition within the snarled jumble of a radically changing America. Crumb’s art, which pioneered the transformation of comics into an adult literary form, addresses a plethora of personal and political themes within a multidimensional narrative framework. His masterfully rendered comics and sketchbook drawings of the last forty years, markedly lacking in concession or self-censorship, offer a profound cultural critique filtered through demanding psychological self-reflection. Thanks to the Grand Central Art Center staff for informative and educational experience, and Eric Stoner for the images.ĬURATOR’S STATEMENTTodd Hignite, Guest Curator / Exhibit organized by Yerba Buena Center for The Arts, San FranciscoRobert Crumb is the quintessential underground artist. Join us now as we take a moment to graze the surface of an amazing talent and arguably one of the more powerful driving forces in the hike to where contemporary art, or “art” is today. Crumb’s Underground sounds off a victorious salute to local San Francisco treasure and comic genius Robert Crumb with an eclectic exhibit of early work, collaborations old and new, and the world premiere of his “spool” drawings. Currently on exhibit at the esteemed Grand Central Art Center in SoCal’s scenic Santa Ana sanctuary is an impressive overview of legendary artist R.Crumb The exhibit is curated by writer Todd Hignite, founder of Comic Art Magazine.
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