Crumby gallery exhibit
The exhibition on R. Crumb that got so much attention last year in San Francisco is now showing in Philadelphia through December. I should have taken a day to fly up to SF last year to see it — still not quite sure how I missed it — and I don’t foresee being in Philadelphia again in time. So if you’re nearby, please go see it for me. (And bring me back an exhibition catalog.)
Thanks to Paul Crist (who is close to Philadelphia, where that catalog would be… ) for making me aware of this.
September 10th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
The Crumb show got a nice story in The Philadelphia Inquirer. Thanks to Paul for sending me the link, and to my brother Ron for clipping the story and mailing it, which allowed me to see the art that wasn’t included on the web.
This must be the same Crumb show which I saw with my daughter Tara, when we were in Seattle visiting her. It was at the Frye Art Museum, a small, welcoming place. There was a scratchy old film of RC and other underground luminaries, as well as Harvey Kurtzman, working on a jam page. Much of the art was familiar to me but it was a kick to view it live. There were some pieces I had never seen, notably a collection of old wooden spools onto which Crumb had drawn a variety of faces. And seeing his Devil Girl statue up close and personal was a surreal experience.
I even signed the guest book and, like many other people, added a drawing. It was of myself, muttering about how I had bought all Crumb’s underground comix in Philly, so many years ago.
On the way out I got to see a favorite painting of mine by Franz von Stuck, titled Sin. It is of Eve and the serpent and had a naughty rep back in 1900 when he commited it to canvas. I’m sure Crumb would approve of being put in the same museum with that one.