Yesterday, I went to go see R. Crumb's illustrated book of Genesis at the Hammer. His style has remained very similar to the album cover he did for Big Brother and the Holding Company, but the material has become more enduring. I thought his work displayed a great balance of representing an unknowable and sometimes unimaginable work that is taken to be directly as the word of God. His drawings are illustrative but not cartoonish, and represent the violence and sex mentioned in Genesis without being graphic. Of course, people are still going to be upset about that, especially because the text he illustrates is cobbled-together from various translations, and Crumb himself gives it a bit of his own spin, so it doesn't represent a true translation.
What I thought was interesting was that there were places where you could see the white-out he used. Given the complexity of his sketches I think this is understandable, but it is still interesting to think that the pieces he submitted to be shown at museums weren't perfect.
If you have means of getting out to Westwood, do check it out. Students get in free.
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