12/06/11

Robert Crumb: Kafka Exhibit Tony Shafrazi Gallery, NYC

Exhibition: Robert Crumb: Kafka
Tony Shafrazi Gallery, New York  
Through July 30, 2011

Tony Shafrazi Gallery, NYC, presents an often-overlooked masterpiece from underground comic pioneer and cultural icon ROBERT CRUMB. Part illustrated biography and part graphic adaptation, Crumb’s "Kafka" seamlessly weaves the infamous Czech writer’s personal life with his most famous stories, told through David Zane Mairowitz’s text and Crumb's signature mix of masterful line work, palpable neuroses, ghoulish detail, and sly sexuality. The combination of Franz Kafka and Robert Crumb creates something new and wonderfully unnerving. No stranger to self-loathing and alienation, Crumb’s lush pen and ink drawings don’t just compliment the text but marvelously amplify Kafka’s satire of bureaucracy, self-flagellation, and dark surrealist-humor—a collaboration that seems oddly perfect despite the 80 years that separate the two legendary artists. Selected drawings from the book including Kafka’s stories "The Trial," "The Burrow," "A Hunger Artist," and "The Metamorphosis" are on view through July 30, 2011.

TONY SHAFRAZI GALLERY, NYC