ART CITIES:N.York- Aline Kominsky-Crumb & R. Crumb
Aline Kominsky-Crumb and Robert Crumb are an odd couple, in life as well as in art. She is a pioneer of the autobiographic comic, and he a celebrated underground illustrator and creator of characters. Together, they manage to convey this highly productive creative tension in many crazy stories.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: David Zwirner Gallery Archive
Aline Kominsky-Crumb & R. Crumb present “Drawn Together” at David Zwirner in New York, an extensive selection of collaborative ink drawings from throughout the run of “Aline & Bob’s Dirty Laundry” comics as well as solo works by both artists in a variety of media. Both pioneers of underground and alternative comics, Aline Kominsky-Crumb & R. Crumb have created a portrait of their shared lives and creative collaborations over the past four decades. In their ongoing “Aline & Bob’s Dirty Laundry” comics, the two artists have rendered their innermost thoughts, fears, and fantasies alongside the day-to-day realities of family life in the 20th and 21st Centuries, each in their own style. Robert Crumb is widely considered to be the “father of underground comics.” His work has a distinctive style and satirical tone and often features strongly stereotyped portrayals of minorities and overly sexualized women. He is best known for creating cartoon characters like: Fritz the Cat, Mr. Natural and Devil Girl. Soon after arriving in San Francisco, Aline Kominsky was introduced to Robert Crumb in 1972 by mutual friends, who noted an uncanny resemblance between her and the Crumb character Honeybunch Kaminski. Their relationship soon became serious and they began living together not long after. She also fell in with the Wimmen’s Comix collective, and contributed to the first issue of that series. After she and Diane Noomin had a falling out with Trina Robbins and other members of the collective, they started their own title, Twisted Sisters. Kominsky-Crumb has later claimed that a large part of her break with the Wimmen’s Comix group was over feminist issues and particularly over her relationship with Robert Crumb, whom Robbins particularly disliked. Since the late 1970s, she and Robert have produced a series of collaborative comics called “Aline & Bob’s Dirty Laundry” a comic about the Crumb family life. For several years during the ‘80s, she was editor of Weirdo, a leading alternative comics anthology of the time. “Aline and Bob’s Dirty Laundry” is a unique project within the comics world. Together, they have created a joint portrait of their lives, from the bohemia of the Bay Area in the ‘70s to the south of France, where they moved permanently in 1991, and from the early stages of dating to their current roles as doting grandparents. Along the way, this indispensable document of the family has expanded to include their daughter Sophie, herself a comics artist, who has collaborated on a number of stories with her parents since 1992.
Info: David Zwirner Gallery, 525 West 19th Street, New York, Duration 12/1-18/2/17, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, www.davidzwirner.com
