Eye Infection / Robert Crumb a.o.

Eye Infection
by Robert Storr (essay) Robert Crumb, Mike Kelley, Jim Nutt, Peter Saul and H.C. Westermann

Here are five artists rarely mentioned in the same sentence--and never before collected together in one book. How to reconcile Robert Crumb's cult-status comic offenses with Mike Kelley's taboo, childish handiwork and Jim Nutt's measured, dogged portraits? How to link Peter Saul's violent, colorful caricatures with H.C. Westermann's eccentric folk fancies? Though none belong firmly to the artistic mainstream, each of these artistic mavericks has exerted a strong influence on their contemporaries and on generations of younger artists--infecting their eyes, if you will, with a shared visual language influenced by comic books, advertisements, folk art, and daily life. Often run through with explicit sexuality and violence, and always visually bombastic, the works presented in Eye Infection are not for the faint-hearted or soft-eyed but for the pop-culture aficionado, the surreptitious comics reader, the humorist, the eccentric, and, of course, the follower of contemporary art.
2002 / hardcover

Eye Infection is a fitting title for this exhibition catalog featuring the work of five artists who have lurked on the edge (and in some cases beyond the edge) of the mainstream art world.
The works are irritating, grotesque, often offensive, and in every case very disturbing. Nevertheless, essayist Robert Storr (senior curator of painting and sculpture, Museum of Modern Art, New York) and curator Braun (Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam) do an admirable job of convincing us that these artists have a place in American art history. Grouped together for both their distinctiveness and their refusal to play by the "rules" of contemporary art, these five artists (Robert Crumb, Mike Kelley, Jim Nutt, Peter Saul, and H.C. Westermann) use their own visual language to shock, irritate, and assault the viewer, yet this exhibition is a testament to the fact that their "outsider" art is being reassessed and placed within the larger picture of American art.
The catalog accompanies an exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, and includes a chronology and bibliography for each artist. Recommended for libraries with strong contemporary arts collections (and strong stomachs). Kraig Binkowski, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.About the Author Rudi Fuchs was the Director of the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.
Robert Storr is the Senior Curator of Painting and Sculpture at The Museum of Modern Art, New York. He has published monographs on Philip Guston, Robert Ryman and Raymond Pettibon, and has been a contributing editor at "Art in America" since 1981. He is also the author of "Gerhard Richter: October 18, 1977".

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Richter Verlag
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 15, 2002
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 208 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 3933807530
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-3933807533
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.75 x 1 x 11.5 inches

B22/8/15:2