Cover by Richard Taylor
There’s a rich print history of comic art poking fun at the realm of fine art—a certain tension between high brow/low brow approaches to art and society
(This seemed especially true in the early half of the 20th century).
E.W. Kemble 1917
Cartoonists seemed to love to address the pretensions of gallery artists and the elitist social trappings of the fine art world.
Donald McKee
Interestingly, in the earliest days of American comic art, cartoonists often carried on parallel careers as fine artists. Rudolph Dirks, creator of the
Katzenjammer Kids, would often take a hiatus to devote time to painting. He even exhibited in the Amory Show of 1913. Others who straddle the fine art/ popular art fence included George Luks (one of “The Eight” and cartoonist of the
Yellow Kid), Walt Kuhn, Lyonel Feininger, Marjorie Organ, Boardman Robinson and John Sloan as well as other ‘Ash Can’ artists such as William Glackens and Everett Shinn.
But that was mostly before modernist trends set such as cubism and abstract art.
Here’s a selection from the Vault:
S. J. Perelman
Let's not forget artists and poverty
R.B.Fuller
Brewerton early 1900's
Judge cartoon from 1922
Modern art
R. B. Fuller again 1927
Frank Hanley from Judge 1927
Nate Collier 1927
From
Ballyhoo 1933
Reprinted in Judge
John Sloan's critique on Cubism from the
Masses
Jeffersom Machamer from
Collier's magazine
W.M. Hendy 1936
Harry Mace
This Week 1949
J.W. Taylor circa 1950's
From the
Yale Record 1950's
Kovarsky from
This Week
Tetsu
A. E. Beard
Punch 1952
William Sillince 1959
And finally....
Paul Reilly from
Judge 1927