It seems Mayor Michael Bloomberg has declared this Paul Hornschemeier week in New York City, beginning tomorrow! First up, we have this in the early evening:
ABOVE: Paul Hornschemeier, Dialectic on Preference, 2004
Dave Eggers curates Lots Of Things Like This April 2 - May 10, 2008
Opening reception: Wednesday, April 2, 6-8pm
With works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Leonard Cohen, David Berman, Ted Berrigan, Joe Brainard, Georges Braque, Jeffrey Brown, R. Crumb, Henry Darger, Marcel Duchamp, CM Evans, Shephard Fairey, David Godbold, Alasdair Gray, Philip Guston, Paul Hornschemeier, Jay Howell, Chris Johanson, Maira Kalman, Kenneth Koch, David Mamet, Quenton Miller, Tucker Nichols, Alice Notley, Ron Padgett, Raymond Pettibon, Dan Perjovschi, Amy Jean Porter, Steve Powers, Royal Art Lodge, Peter Saul, George Schneeman, Olga Scholten, David Shrigley, Shel Silverstein, Nedko Solakov, Ralph Steadman, William Steig, Saul Steinberg, Kurt Vonnegut. This show will explore a very small and specific type of artmaking exemplified by contemporary people like David Shrigley, Raymond Pettibon, Nedko Solakov, and Tucker Nichols. This kind of art, which we refuse to name, is somewhat crude, usually irreverent, and always funny. It exists somewhere between one-panel cartoons and text-based art. What we're talking about, basically, is a show of about 100 works that subscribe (unknowingly) to the following criteria: a) they're drawings, usually very basic or crude; b) these drawings are accompanied by hand-drawn text on the artwork, and this text refers to the drawing, much like a caption; c) this caption-text is funny. So in many ways you might say these are cartoons, because we've just listed the qualifications of a cartoon. But the works in this show are usually found in galleries, not newspapers or magazines, and so we have something interesting to think about: Is humor allowed in art, and in what forms? Are captions allowed in art, and why? And most importantly, why doesn't David Shrigley spell better?
All events are open to the public and free. Gallery hours are Tues - Sat, 11-6.
apexart 291 Church Street, NYC, 10013 t. 212 431 5270 www.apexart.org Subway: A, C, E, N, R, W, Q, 6, J, M, Z to Canal or 1 to Franklin.
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!
After the above event ends at 6PM, head out to Rocketship in Brooklyn for this at 7PM:
And, then that doesn't sate your Paul appetite, check out this the next day at Dartmouth:
This Thursday, February 7th, at 4pm (CST), I'll be doing that verbal ping pong between narcissism and self-deprecation, courtesy the interrogation of the gentlemen at the Inkstuds radio show/podcast. The podcast is available on iTunes or through their site.
Listen intently: see if you can guess the liquid volume of my sweat.
Tom Spurgeon over at the Comics Reporterbeat me to the punch a bit on this, but yes, our new website features artist interviews in various formats for your reading, listening, and watching enjoyment. Our brand-newest addition is Gary Groth's interview with Paul Hornschemeier from Mome Vol. 1, reprinted here on the website in its entirety! And yes, we will be adding EVERY Mome interview to the website over the next few weeks -- stay tuned right here for announcements as each one goes live.
In the meantime, you can catch up on what's already there, including some classic vintage Comics Journal interviews with Peter Bagge, Los Bros. Hernandez, and Jim Woodring, all in downloadable PDF format. (Follow those links to the download pages).
More year-end accolades: New York Magazine has named Paul Hornschemeier's The Three Paradoxes one of its five Best Comics of 2007. Paul is the only American creator on the list (Japan, Israel and Australia are also represented), so hey, I guess that unofficially makes The Three Paradoxes the best American comic of the year! Congratulations, Paul!
Meanwhile, The Complete Peanuts 1963-64 makes it onto Time's Top 10 Graphic Novels of 2007 list. I don't know if the writer is the first to compare Snoopy's doghouse to the TARDIS, but if so, nicely done. We're honored to continue collecting Schulz's work.
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