Here is a link to two slow-pan panorma things of a show I did a few years ago of "mostly abstract comics" art in Mogelsberg St. Gallen Switzerland in Ernesto Müller's gallery.
my only complaint is that it seemed too "neat" & "organized", but that's just me, i prefer a messy aesthetic of overload shutdown shit strewn allover the floor & weird hippies smokin' hash in the corner & some doomsludge band plaing on loud amps & skaters rollin' around etc etc
i dig the hi-tech'd 360° viewaround, the show actually looked really eyesum.
how was it critically received?
i've been reading old issues of Kunstforum International lately & i think perhaps it's the most indepth artmag on the planet & have massive review sections.
i'm curious because i'm still wondering how & if most Americans will be receptive to abstract comics...i think most Europeans are more open to the formal boundary pushing because it seems many more Europeans have a higher exposure to comics which could be considered "conceptual" to a degree...
Thanks TroyLloyd! It went over wonderfully --- but i agree with your desire for a "messier" approach --- I usually DO do that, and usually have a huge walk-in installation comic (as you probably know from the anthology and other posts). This gallery wanted to try and do a "straight ahead" almost show. I let them, except fro the "kiosk" corner. I think it was fine, but not a thrilling as when they "let me loose"!
The first and most comprehensive source of abstract comics on the web, tracing the history and surveying the contemporary landscape of abstract sequential art.
On Abstract Comics: The Anthology (Currently SOLD OUT):
The artists assembled by Andrei Molotiu for his anthology ABSTRACT COMICS (Fantagraphics, $39.99) push “cartooning” to its limits... It’s a fascinating book to stare at, and as with other kinds of abstract art, half the fun is observing your own reactions: anyone who’s used to reading more conventional sorts of comics is likely to reflexively impose narrative on these abstractions, to figure out just what each panel has to do with the next.
--Douglas Wolk, New York Times Book Review, Holiday Books edition, December 6, 2009 The collection has a wealth of rewarding material... it is a significant historical document that may jump-start an actual new genre.
--Doug Harvey, LA Weekly It becomes a treat to take a page of art - or a simple panel - and consider how the shapes, texture, depth, and color interact with one another; to reflect on how, when one takes the time, the enjoyment one ordinarily finds in reading a purely textually-oriented, narrative-driven written story can - with the graphic form - be translated into something completely different.
--Adam Waterreus, Politics and Prose, "Favorite Graphic Literature of the Year."
...this arresting book is like a scoop of primordial narrative, representational mud. Which is to say, it has vitaminic powers.
--Design Observer
For years, comics (at least American ones) have doggedly refused for one reason or another, to consider other schools of art and beyond mere representation. It's only now we see artists attempting to branch out and try to push at the edge's of the medium's definition. As such I found Abstract Comics to be a revealing, thought-provoking and genuinely lovely book that I'll be sure to be rereading in the months to come.
yowza!
ReplyDeletethat looks like it was a cool show!
crazy stuff.
my only complaint is that it seemed too "neat" & "organized", but that's just me, i prefer a messy aesthetic of overload shutdown shit strewn allover the floor & weird hippies smokin' hash in the corner & some doomsludge band plaing on loud amps & skaters rollin' around etc etc
i dig the hi-tech'd 360° viewaround, the show actually looked really eyesum.
how was it critically received?
i've been reading old issues of Kunstforum International lately & i think perhaps it's the most indepth artmag on the planet & have massive review sections.
i'm curious because i'm still wondering how & if most Americans will be receptive to abstract comics...i think most Europeans are more open to the formal boundary pushing because it seems many more Europeans have a higher exposure to comics which could be considered "conceptual" to a degree...
...actually, i'll shut up now.
(vodka)
Thanks TroyLloyd! It went over wonderfully --- but i agree with your desire for a "messier" approach --- I usually DO do that, and usually have a huge walk-in installation comic (as you probably know from the anthology and other posts). This gallery wanted to try and do a "straight ahead" almost show. I let them, except fro the "kiosk" corner. I think it was fine, but not a thrilling as when they "let me loose"!
ReplyDelete