Conan the…Master Painter?
Wag Exhibit presents cartoons as high art
Kristen Pauch-Nolin

Many artists became interested in art while drawing and re-creating comic-book and funny-page characters.

Indeed, the lines and colours of Superman, Conan the Barbarian and political cartoons have provided generations of aspiring visual practitioners with both graphic material and inspiration.

Funny Papers: Marvel Comic, Canadian Political Cartoons and Contemporary Art?, on display at the Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG) beginning May 27, celebrates the evolution of image production and its influence over artistic practice by offering samples from the WAG’s permanent collection. Made up of drawings, illustrations, assemblage pieces and sculpture that span more than three decades, the show provides patrons with an opportunity to see work which has seldom been seen before.

Exhibition curator Mary Reid describes the show as a revisiting of the debates that have surrounded the hierarchical distinctions made between art and illustration. She contends that the pieces included in Funny Papers demonstrate how contemporary art has effectively blurred the two, forcing both artists and audiences to “reconsider the relevance of such an argument today.”

A large portion of the show comprises work that was originally included in one of three exhibitions at the WAG in the 1970s. The structure of Comics (1973), Canadian Political Cartoons (1977) and Steranko: Graphic Narrative (1978) all offered an impressive sampling of illustrations and drawings executed by the best practitioners of the time.

The Structure of Comics introduced the idea of ‘high’ vs. ‘low’ art by exhibiting a collection of comic-book images borrowed and eventually purchased directly from Marvel Comics in New York. The display of comic-book art in the formal gallery implicitly elevated illustration to a position equal to that of sculpture or painting.

Many of the more than 50 pieces that composed the exhibit — including work by legends of comic-book illustration — are back on display in Funny Papers. Original drawings by Rich Buckler of The Avengers, Sal Buscema of Captain America, Gil Kane of The Mighty Thor and John Romita Sr. of The Amazing Spider-Man once again serve to illustrate the significance of the illustration genre and demonstrate its place in the development of contemporary art history.

Select drawings from Steranko: Graphic Narrative, similarly give audiences an opportunity to see original renderings executed by a legend of comic-book illustration. James Steranko, an American icon, is best known for his ’60s Marvel strip Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Described by critics and historians as one of Marvel’s greatest visionaries, Steranko is credited as the innovator of sequential art during the Silver Age of Comics, a period spanning the mid-’50s to the early ’70s, as superheroes evolved and became more human.

The art of illustration is also represented by a selection of pieces from Canadian Political Cartoons, which was originally displayed at the WAG in 1977. Featuring images created by Winnipeg Free Press editorial cartoonist Peter Kuch and Duncan Macpherson of the Toronto Star, the drawings serve to document Canadian history between the early ’60s and the mid-’70s.

Featuring caricatures of and visual commentaries on many of Canada’s most prominent figures, such as prime ministers John Diefenbaker, Joe Clark and Pierre Trudeau, the pieces continue the idea of visual narratives. Here, the individual drawings provide insight into the most significant personalities of the day, and as a collection they reveal the political climate of an era.

The images selected from these three seminal exhibitions have not been shown at the WAG since their debuts in the ’70s. In fact, Reid came upon them quite by accident.

“I was poking around in the collection one day and accidentally came across this stuff and did a little investigation. It was quite surprising to find this stuff hidden in the vault,” she says.

Determined to create a relevant exhibition comprising works exclusively from the collection, Reid combined the selected vintage pieces with more current works. The question mark following ‘Contemporary Art’ in the show’s title suggests her rationale.

Reid explains: “Making the title into a question has various motivations — i.e., would you consider comic books and political cartoons art? Contemporary art draws a lot on comic books and the notion of graphic narrative. Why is that significant? Does it make this type of contemporary art less ‘serious’ than conceptual art? What makes ‘Art’ with a capital A?”

These questions are answered by Reid’s positioning of contemporary artwork that uses the subjects and approaches of comic books and political cartoons right alongside the actual source drawings. The combination demonstrates the tremendous impact the illustration genre has had and continues to have on current artists such as the members of the Royal Art Lodge (RAL), Jordan Van Sewell, Sheila Butler, Laurent Roberge, Pierre Ayot and Otmar Alt.

Sheila Butler’s piece Spider Man steps out of TV, from 1983, includes a reference to comic books in its title, while the connection in Van Sewell’s Ship of Fools is in the piece’s humour. Specifically referencing Van Sewell’s work, Reid describes the art as infused with “irony, parody, satire and innuendo,” a comment as easily applied to any of the contemporary work in Funny Papers.

Mockery and sarcastic criticism similarly define the work of fellow Winnipeggers and RAL members Drue Langlois, Michael Dumontier and Marcel Dzama. Each creates comics or action-figure dolls as part of artistic practice. Represented here by at least one signature piece each, the successful young artists are further evidence of Reid’s thesis.

Perhaps the most surprising pieces are the contributions by Roberge, Ayot and Alt. These works transform comics and cartoons into conceptually based pieces. Ayot’s Untitled (Winnipeg Free Press) from 1980 appears as installation, Alt’s Coq o’clock as figurative sculpture and Roberge’s The Funnies (Les Comiques) as assemblage. Representing the far reach of illustration’s influence, the pieces demonstrate the numerous and unexpected possibilities that artists will undoubtedly continue to find in graphic print.