CO-MIX

CO-MIX
Exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario
Art Spiegelman
Feb 22/15

18,000 years ago someone descends into an opening in the earth that is thought to lead into the internal cavity of the spiritual world he inhabits. Crawling deep inside the cavern the shaman uses earthen pigments to draw on the wall by firelight. Here he records a personal document using symbolic images to show hunting, fishing and ritualistic events from his world, as he understands it.
Fast forward to early 20th Century North American culture. Visual storytelling with images and written words emerges as a novel form of entertainment. Fables, comedic situations, and one joke premises are prevalent. The inherent value of the syndicated comic strip as a commercial vehicle becomes widespread through newspapers of the day. Comic strips as an entertaining diversion has a life span that is short lived and disposable. Very few thought the work of Windsor McKay, George Herriman, George McManus and other American masters would have any staying power. As the century progresses to post WWII there emerges a vast collection of comics in booklet form. These comic books reflect many genres from the fighting GI’s to tales of mystery, suspense, super human feats and horror. The American government, worried about the corruption of the post war generation passes the Comic Code of America in an effort to diffuse the overt violent nature and sexual innuendo found within. It works for them for a short time.
Comics revert to benign character driven stories designed to offend no one. Mostly dumbed down to a point of light diversion, it is easily dismissed as a medium for children and adolescents, their fictional accounts a mere novelty. Not so in Europe however. With their rich history of personal expression, liberal social attitudes and respect for art and social satire, the illustrated story emerged as a well-respected art form. In North America you had comics and cartoons, in Europe you had the illustrated novel and animation. Two polarized idioms.

Recently there was an exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario called Art Spiegelman’s CO-MIX: A retrospective.
From the genesis of his work as a strip cartoonist, (admittedly influenced by the great artist Winsor McCay), through his work in the San Francisco Underground comics scene, his “New Yorker” magazine covers,to all the original panels of his Pulitzer Prize winning “Maus”.

One and half years ago there was a Robert Crumb retrospective at the Musee d’Art Moderne in Paris. It was all there… from his “one of” teenage comic books to the underground comic scene to his seminal, illustrated story of Genesis from the bible. He remarked at the opening how profoundly surprised he was, that he shared the same roof as Matisse, Picasso Dufy and other giants of 20th Century modernism.

Spiegelman’s remarks were somewhat similar. “Comic book art” finally got its due respect. In an effort however to elevate the work of “Maus” to its just station and separate illustrated storytelling from “kids comics”, the term “Graphic Novel” has surfaced.

This exhibit erroneously credits Speigelman with the birth of the Graphic Novel. In my estimation it goes back much further. In the 80’s there was also the self-reflective works by Chester Brown, Seth, and others found in Drawn and Quarterly and Dark Horse publications. Previously, there was the work of Will Eisner who coined the phrase ” Graphic Novel” with his “A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories”. Among others there was also Rockwell Kent, Lynd Ward and his “God’s Man” and back even further, one would argue to Egyptian hieroglyphics and cave paintings.

It safe to say that it goes back to those cave paintings in Europe 180,000 years ago or the prehistoric petroglyphs in North America. Its relevance has always been with us. This inherent need to communicate and share our experience with others is a quality woven into the human fabric and has been integral in our lives since the dawn of civilization.

Personal experience and point of view that is well drawn in pictures with well-chosen words achieves the same thing as a masterpiece of cinema, a poem, a novel or a historical account. It makes us think. It moves us emotionally. It does what art does.
There are the cartoons, comics and then there is the graphic novel.
As this is becoming more prevalent, society in general is now coming to know the difference.