by matthias wivel & friends
Vi læser en klaskker i denne episode af Radio Rackham: Will Eisners A Contract with God, eller på dansk En kontrakt med Gud, fra 1978. Den er for nylig blevet genudgivet på dansk af Fahrenheit og det gav os anledning til at vende tilbage til en banebrydende tegneserie, der står os alle nær. Ikke dermed sagt, at vi er ukritiske, men jeg håber vores begejstring kan høres.
Lyt her og læs mere på Nummer9.
I dag kan man læse min anmeldelse af Will Eisners klassiske En kontrakt med Gud (A Contract with God and other Tenement Stories, 1979) i Informations bogtillæg og online, hvis man punger ud. Denne toneangivende udgivelse, der satte standarden efter hvilke såkaldte graphoc novels skulle blive vurderet mange år frem, er netop blevet genudgivet på dansk af Fahrenheit (desværre med rædsom maskintekstning). Hermed en uddrag af anmeldelsen:
Eisner, som alle dage havde haft sans for markedsføring, påhæftede den betegnelsen ’A Graphic Novel’. Begrebet eksisterede allerede og det samme gjorde tegneserier, der trak på den oplevede virkelighed, men hans lancering af samlingen i romanformat var en genistreg – pludselig fik begrebet kulturel kurrans. Selvom der strengt taget ikke var tale om en novel, altså roman, men snarere en novellesamling, præsenterede den meget konkret et bud på, hvordan tegneserien kunne, og måske burde, opfattes som litteratur. Begrebet blev hurgtigt udvandet af udgivelser, som dybest set blot var omkalfatrede genreserier, men formen vandt stille og roligt indpas og den kritiske masse, der gjorde begrebet alment kendt, begyndte at indtræffe i årene efter årtusindskiftet.
God læselyst!
The week in review.
Another fine week. Spent a few days in London for work and had the chance to see a number of the exhibitions on display there. I will return to the landmark Leonardo show at the National Gallery presently and hopefully also to the eye-opening Degas show at the Royal Academy, and perhaps even the enjoyable John Martin retrospective at the Tate. Here, however, I just wanted to attach a few words to the Gerhard Richter retrospective at the Modern.
Extremely well-received critically as well as commercially, Richter is no doubt one of the heavy hitters of contemporary painting. It is easy to see why. Clearly an intelligent artist, he speaks directly to central aspects of postmodern discourse, engaging in his work trauma (the Holocaust) and ideological violence (Rote Armee Fraktion), art history (from Titian to Mondrian), as well — and most essentially — his own medium. His art, which merges the techniques of photography and painting in innovative ways and alternately emphasizes and suppresses the author’s hand simply screams META!
Essentially, however, he is a purveyor of kitsch. Yes, he can emulate strikingly the look of a photograph, but beyond the theoretical reception his subversion of mechanical reproduction enables, these pictures are self-importantm, dim reiterations of his paragons, from Friedrich, Redon and Hammershøi to Duchamp and De Kooning. Gimmicky but decorative — hi-fi bank art, fit for the transnational corporate penthouse. Where he really shows his hand, however, is in his abstract art, particularly his squeegee paintings. Loud and garish, they lack any real sense of color or expressive touch. The work of an intellectual, not a painter.
The week’s links:
Above: Gerhard Richter, Cage 4 (2006).
I visited the small Will Eisner retrospective over at MoCCA on Saturday. It’s a good show, with sections devoted to The Spirit (including all the originals to the classic “Gerhard Shnobble” story from 1948), A Contract with God, Dropsie Avenue, plus a generous selection of other material, primarily from the eighties. Well worth a visit, if you’re in the area.
I’ve posted a small selection of images over at Nummer9. Peep them.
Raphael’s Portrait of Lorenzo de’Medici
The Metabunker summarizes the problems of attribution surrounding the Raphael portrait sold at Christie’s in 2007
Interview: El-P & Aesop Rock
Click here to read our 2003 in-depth interview with two of New York’s finest.
Continuous Creation — Titian’s Nuova Natura
On Titian’s aesthetic of the unfinished and Renaissance notions of the subjective.
Bleed Runner
On Blade Runner: The Final Cut. Also, read producer Charles de Lauzirika’s comments here.
Hergé and the Order of Things
Hooded Utilitarian column on Hergé’s vision and the necessity of comics criticism that engages deep form
Bruegel, Rembrandt, Crumb and Cartooning
Extended Hooded Utilitarian piece on R. Crumb’s Genesis and the cartoon tradition.
New Yorker Cartoons: A Legacy of Mediocrity
A deadening force at the heart of the art form, smothering the field in bourgeois mediocrity
Hogarth’s Chicken Fat
An analysis of Hogarth’s rich imagery as both support and counterpoint to his storytelling
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Radio Rackham: The Spirit – Ten Minutes
Denne gang kigger vi grundigt på klassisk materiale: Spirit-historien “Ten Minutes” af Will Eisner og Jules Feiffer fra 1949. Det gør vi analytisk, så der bliver virkelig gået i detaljer, billede for billede og alt det der. Tun ind og check os ud — det bliver tabt ædelstene og salig Eisner og hans mesterværk. Lyt her og læs mere på Nummer9.