Today on the site, Joe brings us into April with comics and more comics.
Elsewhere:
Attention Ryan Holmberg fans: He is speaking at Baruch College tomorrow.
Tim is back, and with him some balance has been restored. Maybe. In honor of his return, I will unfurl some deep thoughts...
This past weekend I visited the Raymond Pettibon exhibition at the New Museum, which served as an excellent reminder that I don't like Raymond Pettibon's artwork very much. I have enjoyed his zines, and I think he's fine, but the stuff never reaches past itself. It's a 40 year slog through various parts of American culture (surfing, baseball, hippies, religion, murder, etc.) that manages to never rise above or offer any perspective on it. His text, embedded in numerous drawings, is never more than on-the-nose and pat. In a way the show is like a three-floor installation of a Graham Ingels or Frank Frazetta (two obvious influences): It shows us plenty of "awesome" things but it's just that thing and only that thing, and I find that ultimately dull in a museum context. As a 16 page zine, yes, ok. Or even seeing, as I have, a half dozen drawings on a wall. But he's just not an interesting enough mind or hand to sustain three floors. I prefer the Mike Kelley dive into the same material -- the transformative approach rather than regurgitation.
