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Marc Jacobs might only have eyes for a certain Coppola, but in the case of comic legend R. Crumb, the title of muse is reserved for another fashionista: his wife. “I’m sure my giant ass is not what [Jacobs] had in mind when he designed that dress,” says cartoonist Aline Kominsky Crumb of the portrait her husband created for the couple’s high-fashion-focused New York Times series in 2003. Be that as it may, “R. Crumb and His Underground,” opening in March at YBCA, makes a case for Kominsky Crumb as both a compelling subject and anartist in her own right. (Her own “graphic memoir,” Need More Love, was published last month.
The show, which features more than 100 works, highlights the couple’s collaborations (including Aline in Stella McCartney and the comic strip Fashion Week in New York) while examining Crumb’s body of work as a whole in relation to its cultural and political context. Arguably misogynistic, irrefutably meticulous and unashamedly cranky, R. Crumb has solidified his reputation as the godfather of underground comics. His icon status does not, however, exempt him from the great-woman-behind-every-great-man rule: “I’ve influenced Robert to be more honest about himself, and I sort of can’t be influenced,” says Kominsky Crumb. “He’ll say, ‘That thumb is on the wrong side of the hand!’ and I say, ‘Too bad.’”
Marc Jacobs might only have eyes for a certain Coppola, but in the case of comic legend R. Crumb, the title of muse is reserved for another fashionista: his wife. “I’m sure my giant ass is not what [Jacobs] had in mind when he designed that dress,” says cartoonist Aline Kominsky Crumb of the portrait her husband created for the couple’s high-fashion-focused New York Times series in 2003. Be that as it may, “R. Crumb and His Underground,” opening in March at YBCA, makes a case for Kominsky Crumb as both a compelling subject and anartist in her own right. (Her own “graphic memoir,” Need More Love, was published last month.
The show, which features more than 100 works, highlights the couple’s collaborations (including Aline in Stella McCartney and the comic strip Fashion Week in New York) while examining Crumb’s body of work as a whole in relation to its cultural and political context. Arguably misogynistic, irrefutably meticulous and unashamedly cranky, R. Crumb has solidified his reputation as the godfather of underground comics. His icon status does not, however, exempt him from the great-woman-behind-every-great-man rule: “I’ve influenced Robert to be more honest about himself, and I sort of can’t be influenced,” says Kominsky Crumb. “He’ll say, ‘That thumb is on the wrong side of the hand!’ and I say, ‘Too bad.’”
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