Comic Relief — BravinLee programs

Comic Relief - Co Curated by Charlotte Bravin Lee

Kumasi J. Barnett, Ronnie Cutrone, Henry Darger, Walt Disney Studios, Mort Drucker, Peter Dudek, Jesse (The Daily Don) Duquette, Hanna-Barbera Productions, David Humphrey, Ai Kijima, Leslie Lasiter, MR., Rebecca Morgan, Mark Mulroney, Joyce Pensato, Archie Rand, Josh Reames, Peter Saul, Michael Scoggins, Art Spiegelman, Alfred Steiner, William Steig, Martin Wilner

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“I wear a mask. And that mask, it’s not to hide who I am, but to create what I am.” —Batman, Batman Vol. 1 #624
Prior to being exposed to museums, galleries and “so-called” fine art, the cartoon is the primary art form, influence and experience from the cradle on. We set out to create a small show, a scoop of from a sea of artists inspired by making cartoons ands cartoon inspired images. For most every child, Saturday morning meant being parked in front of the TV for hours of Hanna-Barbera, Bugs and Daffy, Road Runner, Superman… the list is endless. Every artist grew up drawing cartoons and being glued to the TV and the now mostly defunct Sunday funnies.
Stan Lee’s Marvel Comic characters, the DC Universe, Archie and Jughead, Tom and Jerry, Mad Magazine’s Spy vs Spy, Looney-Tunes, South Park and Family Guy, and the counter-culture icons, Crumb and Zap are our seminal first exposures to art and drawing. Did I mention the list is endless?
The influence of the onomatopoeia of the POW and BLAM, the look of the intersecting speech bubbles, the graphic design of a strip, the heroes of DC and Marvel, the satire of MAD, animation, anime, and the exaggerated eyes of manga characters all can be seen in the work in this show. Several of the artists re-write their own narratives through this classic medium others are more interested in the graphics and structure of the strip.
Comics give us hope, make us laugh and provide heroes, which is especially important at a time when the world is in the grip of a cartoonishly evil villain.
We are pleased to have all the artists included but are especially pleased to have two original works by the living legend Mort Drucker. One of the great draftsman and portraitists of his time or any other, and a social commentator of the first rank in all history, Drucker is 90 and lives and works on Long Island, NY and if there's any justice, he should have a 50 pound book and a retrospective at MOMA or The MET.