Comic Art in Museums

Description

Through essays and interviews, Kim A. Munson's anthology tells the story of the over-thirty-year history of the artists, art critics, collectors, curators, journalists, and academics who championed the serious study of comics, the trends and controversies that produced institutional interest in comics, and the wax and wane and then return of comic art in museums. Audiences have enjoyed displays of comic art in museums as early as 1930. In the mid-1960s, after a period when most representational and commercial art was shunned, comic art began a gradual return to art museums as curators responded to the appropriation of comics characters and iconography by such famous pop artists as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. From the first-known exhibit to show comics in art historical context in 1942 to the evolution of manga exhibitions in Japan, this volume regards exhibitions both in the United States and internationally. With over eighty images and thoughtful essays by Denis Kitchen, Brian Walker, Andrei Molotiu, Paul Gravett, Art Spiegelman, Trina Robbins, and Charles Hatfield, among others, this anthology shows how exhibitions expanded the public dialogue about comic art and our expectation of "good art"-displaying how dedicated artists, collectors, fans, and curators advanced comics from a frequently censored low-art medium to a respected art form celebrated worldwide. Contents Acknowledgments Foreword • M. Thomas Inge Introduction • Kim A. Munson FOUNDATIONS: COMIC ART IN MUSEUMS Comic Art in Museums: An Overview • Denis Kitchen Substance and Shadow: The Art of the Cartoon • Brian Walker Permanent Ink: Comic Book and Comic Strip Art as Aesthetic Object • Andrei Molotiu PIONEERS: COMIC ART EXHIBITIONS, 1930–1967 The Evolution of Comic Art Exhibitions, 1934–1951Kim A. Munson Narrative Illustration: The Story of the ComicsM. C. Gaines The First International: I Exposicao Internacional de Historias em Quadrinhos • Alvaro de Moya Comics and Figurative Narration: What Pierre Couperie Contributed • Antoine Sausverd THE RENEWED FOCUS ON COMICS AS ART AFTER 1970 The Comic Stripped and Ash Canned: A Review Essay • Albert Boime Exhibitions at the Museum of Cartoon Art: A Personal Recollection • Brian Walker Mort Walker, Historian • Cullen Murphy Review/Art: Cartoon Masters—Cartoonists Finally Get Some Respect • Kenneth Baker Comics, Community, and the ToonSeum: An Interview with Joe Wos • Kim A. Munson EXPANDING VIEWS OF COMIC ART: TOPICS AND DISPLAY Northern Ink: Misfit Lit in Minneapolis • Diana Green Our Heroes: African American Artists and Images in the American Comic Book • Dwayne McDuffie Deviating from “Art”: Japanese Manga Exhibitions, 1990–2015 • Jaqueline Berndt The Glimmering Glow of Comic Art amidst the Blinding Glitter of the United Arab Emirates • John A. Lent Hypercomics: The Shape of Comics to Come • Paul Gravett Sequential Titillation: Comics Stripped at the Museum of Sex, New York • Craig Yoe MASTERS OF HIGH AND LOW: EXHIBITIONS IN DIALOGUE Comic Connoisseurs • David Deitcher Comics as Art Criticism: The Cartoons of Jonah Kinigstein • Karen Green and Kim A. Munson High Way Robbery • Michael Dooley “High Art Lowdown”: This Review Is Not Sponsored by AT&T • Art Spiegelman How Low Can You Go? • John Carlin Cracking the Comics Canon • Leslie Jones An Uneasy Accord: LA Museums Open Their Walls to Comics as True Works of Art • Scott Timberg Here Are the Great Women Comic Artists of the United States • Trina Robbins Remasters of American Comics: Sequential Art as New Media in the Transformative Museum Context • Damian Duffy PERSONAL STATEMENTS: EXHIBITIONS ABOUT INDIVIDUAL ARTISTS After Masters: Interview with Gary Panter • Kim A. Munson Splashing Ink on Museum Walls: How Comic Art Is Conquering Galleries, Museums, and Public Spaces • Rob Salkowitz In Our Own Image, After Our Likeness • Charles Hatfield Showing Pages and Progress: Interview with Carol Tyler • Kim A. Munson Curating Comics Canons: Daniel Clowes and Art Spiegelman’s Private Museums • Benoit Crucifix Co-Mix and Exhibitions: Interview with Art Spiegelman • Kim A. Munson Introduction to Comic Book Apocalypse: The Graphic World of Jack Kirby • Charles Hatfield Jack Kirby at Cal State Northridge • Doug Harvey Genius in a Box • Alexi Worth Thirty Museums with Regular Comics Programming List of Contributors