Tag Archives: abstract comics

Silent Pictures on Fifth Avenue

Silent_Pictures

Silent Pictures
Through October 11, 2009

“Silent Pictures” is inspired by artist Art Spiegelman’s collection of wordless books – mostly black and white artist books from the 1930s. The exhibition features these books, as well as more recent “abstract comics,” and a related film program, which investigates essential qualities and aesthetics of this hugely popular medium.

The abstract comics, compiled by Andrei Molotiu for Abstract Comics, Fantagraphics Books, 2009, call attention to formal mechanisms that underlie all comics. Where the earlier art collected by Spiegelman retains a narrative thrust, the comics gathered by Molotiu emphasize dynamic graphics that lead the eye and mind from panel to panel, suggesting that these structural elements are fundamental to the emotional register of the medium.

The exhibition includes a wall drawing by Renee French, an animation by Rachel Cattle and Steve Richards, and a project for the Fifth Avenue lobby windows by Gail Fitzgerald and Carl Ostendarp. “Comic-Film-Strips,” a related film program featuring mostly wordless, animated, historic films, is curated by Columbia University art historian Noam Elcott.

Book Signing

Thursday September 10, 56 PM
Jim Hanley’s Universe, 4 West 33rd Street, New York, NY
Editor Andrei Molotiu and some of the contributing artists will sign copies of Abstract Comics: The Anthology.

Curator Walk-through

Friday September 11, 6 PM
With Andrei Molotiu

Abstract Comics: A Panel Discussion

Saturday September 12, 4 PM
Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art
594 Broadway, Suite 401, New York

Comic-Film-Strips: Noam Elcott in Conversation

Friday September 25, 67:30 PM
The Graduate Center Skylight Lounge (9th Floor)
Art historian Noam Elcott will discuss the exhibition’s animated film program, which he curated as part of the “Silent Pictures” exhibition, in the context of twentieth-century avant-garde cinema.

Abstract Comics: a panel discussion at MoCCA

Abstract Comics

Please join the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art – MoCCA for
ABSTRACT COMICS: a panel discussion
Saturday, September 12th, 4 p.m. 2009
Admission: $5 | Free for MoCCA Members


featuring
Derik Badman

Richard Hahn
Patrick McDonnell
Janusz Jaworski
Andrei Molotiu
Anders Pearson
Henrik Rehr
Alexey Sokolin

Join MoCCA for a discussion about Abstract Comics: what they are, who is making them and why. Abstract Comics explores what is essential to the medium of comics – panel rhythm, page layout, the sequential arrangement of formal elements – and tells us how comics function and where they can go.  This talk is held in conjunction with the exhibition Silent Pictures at James Gallery, CUNY, opening on Thursday, September 10th and the new book Abstract Comics, edited by Andrei Molotiu from Fantagraphics Books.