ART & BEAUTY Drawings By R. Crumb

Presenting all three issues of the series in one book, Art & Beauty is arranged chronologically, from the earliest images of the 1990s to drawings completed in 2016. Paul Morris, longtime gallerist and supporter of Robert Crumb’s practice, writes an introduction that contextualizes this body of work and the artist’s career. The images appeal to a mostly erotic sensibility, which in turn is undercut by the inclusion of sometimes ironic and frequently philosophical prose. The images drag philosophy back down to earth, while the writing challenges the pure eroticism of Crumb’s drawings. A wonderful window into Crumb’s world of bodies and ideas, Art & Beauty is at once a satirical take on aesthetics and a continued exploration of Crumb’s subversion of sexuality and mainstream values. Drawings of women in positions ranging from lascivious to modest or mid-sport are accompanied by quotations from artists like Leonardo da Vinci, George Grosz, William de Kooning, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Harvey Kurtzman. Mining his own obsessions and fantasies, Crumb reimagines the history of art, challenging notions of beauty, along with society’s mores and expectations of propriety around the female form. Robert Crumb has an eye for beauty. To say he's enthralled by women is an understatement. Sometimes his eye distorts reality, and we see what his heart and mind see. This volume collects the three "Art & Beauty" chapters into one volume, filled with Crumb's drawings of women (both known and imagined) from the '90s to 2016. If you're a follower of this singular underground comix legend, then this one deserves a place on your shelf! ~Marty