Post by The Ultimate Nullifier on Nov 21, 2014 16:56:05 GMT -6
The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., has added comics to its permanent collection for the first time. Abigail and William Gerdts donated 176 comics, including Zap Comix and Arcade: The Comics Revue. Judith Brodie, curator of modern prints and drawings, cited the influence of comics on artists such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein: “They were all drawing their inspiration from cartoons and comic books. It seems totally logical that we’d want a representation of those.”
www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/national-gallery-of-art-acquires-comics-17th-century-etchings-and-diebenkorn-prints/2014/11/20/3b9ca4b4-6f6a-11e4-ad12-3734c461eab6_story.html
National Gallery of Art acquires comics, 17th-century etchings and Diebenkorn prints
A collection of underground comic books, preliminary prints of Richard Diebenkorn’s seminal work, “Green,” and five sets of etchings from 18th-century Venice are among the new acquisitions of the National Gallery of Art.
The 176 comic books — collected by Abigail and William Gerdts and given to the gallery — are the first comics to enter its permanent collection. Published between 1964 and 1977, they include work that influenced major modern artists such as Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol, according to curator Judith Brodie, head of modern prints and drawings.
“They were all drawing their inspiration from cartoons and comic books. It seems totally logical that we’d want a representation of those,” Brodie said. “This is a way to supplement the collection.”
The Gerdts’ collection is among the acquisitions the museum’s board of trustees approved at its Oct. 2 meeting and announced Friday. It includes the museum’s first work by Robert (“R”) Crumb and is bookended by important issues of “Zap Comix,” founded by Crumb in 1967, and “Arcade: The Comics Revue,” published a decade later.
“The 20th century is one that highlights this whole interaction between highbrow culture and lowbrow culture, and so much of the highbrow art is feeding off of what is going on in the lowbrow culture,” Brodie said.
The National Gallery of Art also announced the purchase of three preliminary impressions, or working proofs, of Diebenkorn’s “Green,” a print many consider the artist’s greatest.
The three pieces offer insight into Diebenkorn’s artistic process, Brodie said. Diebenkorn almost completely painted over one print, while another “is essentially a collage” of pinned and pasted pieces of other prints that Diebenkorn layered on it, she said.
“It’s like watching an artist in the process of making a decision,” she said, adding, “they are drop-dead gorgeous.”
The proofs were among the highlights of last year’s exhibition, “Yes, No, Maybe: Artists Working At Crown Point Press.” In conjunction with the purchase, Kathan Brown, founder of Crown Point Press, donated three more proofs of “Green” and an additional 57 works, both proofs and edition prints, made by two dozen Crown Point artists, including Chuck Close and Sol LeWitt, between 1972 and 2010.
Margaret Bourke-White. “Fort Peck Dam, Montana,” 1936 gelatin silver print. (Courtesy of National Gallery of Art)
The museum also added two significant pieces to its photography collection: a print of Margaret Bourke-White’s “Fort Peck Dam, Montana” from 1936, the first photograph to appear on the cover of Life magazine, and a print of Edward Steichen’s “An Apple, A Boulder, A Mountain” from 1921.
Peggy McGlone joined the Washington Post in 2014 as its local arts reporter. Prior to that, she covered the arts for The Star-Ledger in New Jersey for more than a decade.
www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/national-gallery-of-art-acquires-comics-17th-century-etchings-and-diebenkorn-prints/2014/11/20/3b9ca4b4-6f6a-11e4-ad12-3734c461eab6_story.html
National Gallery of Art acquires comics, 17th-century etchings and Diebenkorn prints
A collection of underground comic books, preliminary prints of Richard Diebenkorn’s seminal work, “Green,” and five sets of etchings from 18th-century Venice are among the new acquisitions of the National Gallery of Art.
The 176 comic books — collected by Abigail and William Gerdts and given to the gallery — are the first comics to enter its permanent collection. Published between 1964 and 1977, they include work that influenced major modern artists such as Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol, according to curator Judith Brodie, head of modern prints and drawings.
“They were all drawing their inspiration from cartoons and comic books. It seems totally logical that we’d want a representation of those,” Brodie said. “This is a way to supplement the collection.”
The Gerdts’ collection is among the acquisitions the museum’s board of trustees approved at its Oct. 2 meeting and announced Friday. It includes the museum’s first work by Robert (“R”) Crumb and is bookended by important issues of “Zap Comix,” founded by Crumb in 1967, and “Arcade: The Comics Revue,” published a decade later.
“The 20th century is one that highlights this whole interaction between highbrow culture and lowbrow culture, and so much of the highbrow art is feeding off of what is going on in the lowbrow culture,” Brodie said.
The National Gallery of Art also announced the purchase of three preliminary impressions, or working proofs, of Diebenkorn’s “Green,” a print many consider the artist’s greatest.
The three pieces offer insight into Diebenkorn’s artistic process, Brodie said. Diebenkorn almost completely painted over one print, while another “is essentially a collage” of pinned and pasted pieces of other prints that Diebenkorn layered on it, she said.
“It’s like watching an artist in the process of making a decision,” she said, adding, “they are drop-dead gorgeous.”
The proofs were among the highlights of last year’s exhibition, “Yes, No, Maybe: Artists Working At Crown Point Press.” In conjunction with the purchase, Kathan Brown, founder of Crown Point Press, donated three more proofs of “Green” and an additional 57 works, both proofs and edition prints, made by two dozen Crown Point artists, including Chuck Close and Sol LeWitt, between 1972 and 2010.
Margaret Bourke-White. “Fort Peck Dam, Montana,” 1936 gelatin silver print. (Courtesy of National Gallery of Art)
The museum also added two significant pieces to its photography collection: a print of Margaret Bourke-White’s “Fort Peck Dam, Montana” from 1936, the first photograph to appear on the cover of Life magazine, and a print of Edward Steichen’s “An Apple, A Boulder, A Mountain” from 1921.
Peggy McGlone joined the Washington Post in 2014 as its local arts reporter. Prior to that, she covered the arts for The Star-Ledger in New Jersey for more than a decade.