I love comic books, however when they get into a gallery somehow the love starts to fade.

Comic books were the reason I started to draw and then paint in the first place so it's not like I have some kind of dislike about comics going on here - far from it - I still buy comics. I'm not talking about Magna, I'm talking about old school Marvel and DC comics - although to be sure it's mostly independents as opposed to the big two. Which brings me to Robert Crumb (and really the spirit of all the San Francisco based alt-comics of the sixties/early seventies) and his show at the ICA. Which was just a bore.

I think the problem stems from how do you really give someone the experience of reading comics in a gallery/museum setting. The ICA has done all the things that people try to do - present whole stories on the wall like the pages just go on and on, as well as putting open books in glass covered tables so people can read through them. Both of these things work with seeing the art and reading it like some kind of wall text at the beginning of a show the trouble here is that comics are just not that medium. Comics are an intimate and mentally explosive experience that is about closing off the world around you than just reading it and showing the pretty pictures in a open room. It is probably that intimacy and immersiveness that I miss the most.

The show is well done, and hits all the high points that a non-comics fan would want to see - Mr. Natural, the "keep on trucking guy", Fritz the Cat (with no mention of that horrible Ralph Bakshi film), The Snoid, The Devil Girl, and even an American Splendor or two (his period of illustration for Harvey Pekars' stories based out of Cleveland) even his foot and leg fetish are well documented and everything is shown in a respectful and positive way. Things for the fans are thrown in as well - giant wood cut-outs of important characters (see above) - a more than life size sculpture of Aline (his wife). His recent images of old-time musicians are here too. You really do have all the ingredients to see the key elements and central motif in Crumbs work, himself.

What a self we get to see, both anti-hero and super-hero. Crumb was always able to walk both sides of that line with his boldly creative personal stories of triumph and tragedy to his sexual adventures and misadventures. Always the man in an ill fitting suit with out of step tastes and at the same time a pop icon. I've always thought that Crumb's askew narcissism was his greatest asset in showing his world view to his readers - any somewhat awake viewer will see that, and be the better, or worse for it.

There are things that really work in the white cube - but somehow comics are not quite there. They should be, but we as artists and viewers (and curators) need to figure that out for the future. I'm looking forward to one day seeing Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Jim Steranko, Don Martin, Harvey Kurtzman, The Hernandez Brothers, Art Spiegleman, Charles Burns and many others sitting in a room with Fat Fredie's Cat while in the same room we see minimalist, conceptual, and earth based art made during the same time period.

R Crumb's Underground runs through December 7, 2008

Labels: Comics, Philadelphia

I hope you'll join me Saturday November 8, from 4-6pm for an open/close reception event at Green Line Art Projects in Philadelphia.

It's a two for one kind of deal - my show is going down while John Tallmans' work is going up.

Here are the details from Douglas at Green Line...

Closing will be Matthew Langley's "Recent Paperworks" exhibition.  It's your last chance to see this DC artist's terrific geometric paintings.  Matthew will be there, too.  So stop by to meet him!  Opening will be "Contemporary Two-Dimensional Art Objects For Home or Office by John Tallman."  Tallman is a Philly-area native, now based in Chattanooga by way of Korea.  Tallman will exhibit a brand new series of colored resin coated paper pieces specifically created for this show.

Labels: Galleries, Painting, Paperworks, Philadelphia

I was in Philadelphia recently and visited the Philadelphia Museum of Art for the first time. I was really excited to finally see what I believe is the largest collection of Marcel Duchamp's artwork anywhere in the world. Believe me, it did not disappoint. I was also thrilled to see the cycle of paintings that Cy Twombly did around the theme of the fall of Troy and the death of Achilles. Today however, I'm focusing on Duchamp. Marcel Duchamp if your nasty.

I'm assuming that the readership of this blog is versed well enough in the story (legend if you will) of The Large Glass, so I will only do a quick re-cap. The Large Glass is an artwork that is painted on glass, however, I would think that a painting would actually involve paint - MD instead used dust in stand oil, or linseed oil (I can never remember). The images used in the painting are self referential to Duchamp's work, and consists of two panels one on top of the other similar to a double hung window. The Large Glass remained "unfinished" but was sold and shipped to the collector that bought it (Walter Arensberg, if I'm incorrect, let me know) however upon opening the crate, the glass had broken, it was at this point Duchamp considered the work finished.

Anyway, I finally get to spend some time with this artwork that has defined, defied, aroused and confused so many. This artwork has become almost mythical in my mind to the point where I doubted that I would ever really see it. It is the most majestic failure and the most amazing masterpiece that I have ever seen. It is just that simple a piece of art.

Later that night I was having a conversation with Douglas Witmer and we were talking about what would be an interesting project to assign if you were an art teacher - Douglas said he thought it would be really interesting to set up an assignment that defined who you were not. This was discussed farther as we both agreed that there is a serious split as it pertains to modern into contemporary art. The split was - I think we both agreed was Picasso versus Mattise. but I Can see where Duchamp broke with Picasso after cubism and found himself in his own place. I've been thinking about this idea and more and more I find myself drawn to the forks in the road, and how they make the experience of just doing something as decadent as enjoying looking at art all the more interesting.

A quick note: is there a friendlier museum than The Philadelphia Museum of Art? I doubt it. Everyone from the front desk folks to the security guards were just so friendly - it blew me away, just how nice the folks are there.

The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass), 1915-23, Oil, varnish, lead foil, lead wire, and dust on two glass panels, 9 feet 1 1/4 inches x 69 1/4 inches (277.5 x 175.9 cm)

© Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris / Estate of Marcel Duchamp

Labels: modernism, Museums, Philadelphia

Matthew Langley - Paperworks

Green Line Art Projects
3649 Lancaster Ave.
Philadelphia, PA 19104

Now - through November 7, 2008
Opening Reception September 12 from 6pm to 8pm

Indirect Enquiries, 2008, 9" x 9", Acrylic on paper

Labels: Galleries, Matthew Langley, Painting, Philadelphia

So enough with my trails and tribulations about the house/studio. Lets move on to some better news but, before I start, Sorry for being away for the last 10 days or so. I was just caught up in the finals of the regular season (Go Caps!) and spent too much time at the rink and in front of the TV.

Solo Show in Philadelphia this September
Doug Witmer has been kind enough to set up a casual showing of my paperworks at Green Line Projects. I'm thrilled to be having even a cafe show in another city by someone who I have admired from a distance. I'll talk more in the later months.

Collected by Ernst and Young
I recently had a painting purchased by Ernst & Young. Sunflower was featured in The Washington Post Sunday Source section when the show at DCAC was opening. For me it's the first sale of my work to a major corporation.

Art-O-Matic
AOM was so good to me last time that I just cant resist doing it agin this year. One of the things I really like about AOM is the ability to show a group of artworks as opposed to one of those shows with 50 works by 50 artists and no one remembers anything.

Labels: Galleries, Matthew Langley, Painting, Philadelphia, Washington DC