Artistic Genius or Tasteless Pervert?

[samurainoir]

Robert Crumb Pulls Out Of Australian Tour Over Pervert Jibes Bleeding Cool Comic Book, Movies and TV News and Rumors

He's done many appearances in North America without this kind of backlash. In France his stature as an artist has been elevated to the point that he can trade a few of his sketchbooks for a French villa where he resided for more than a decade. Slow news day in Australia or do they have a legitimate gripe with the counter-cultural icon? (particularly without the historical context with which to judge his taboo breaking body of work)

[madmarva]

You can be an artistic genius and still have poor taste and be a pervert.

[emeraldknight47]

You can be an artistic genius and still have poor taste and be a pervert.

True dat.

[ctc]

Hmmmm....

You can be both. ("Comic Book Confidential" has a good interview with Crumb that I think applies.) Crumb is one of them guys whom I don't think translates well to a post-80's comic audience. Partly 'cos of the solidification of what a comic is after that date (that is, superheroes), partly 'cos a lot of his stuff dealt with (and lam****ed) cultural trends and values that have long since disappeared.

Don C.

[aquatroy]

You can be an artistic genius and still have poor taste and be a pervert.

Garry Glitter comes to mind.

[torgospizza]

Crumb's a very talented artist, there's no doubt; however, to say he has issues is the very zenith of diplomacy (i.e., dude's a freak). Although I think Robert has more raw talent, his son blows him away when it comes to technique, IMHO.

[samurainoir]

Although I think Robert has more raw talent, his son blows him away when it comes to technique, IMHO.

His daughter, Sophie's recent hardcover retrospective book is absolutely fascinating to me. Aline and Robert present her work from when she was a little girl up until the birth of her own baby.


The Crumb documentary of course showed us that his two older brothers were possibly even more talented and messed up than Robert.

[MicromanZone]

Whatever. Go to any art museum and there are tons of “perversions” on display. Complete conjecture on my part, but if you watched the film on him and his family and heard any interviews, it’s pretty clear he would only pull out of an event like this if the cost/benefit ratio was out of whack. Heck, we live in the Internet age, right? And Crumb is famous enough to have his work scanned and posted all over the place, right? Folks will see it whether Australian muckity mucks don’t want the public to see them or not.

I will say that I am a tad disturbed when I see a child of a famous person following in the exact footsteps of their parents. I can’t help but feel strings are being pulled or the kid is trying to live up to the public’s perception of what they should be.

[johnmiic]

I saw the documentary and Crumb did not have a happy upbringing. He had a very dysfunctional family. He has flaws like anyone else. Still I can't stomach him, his opinions or his work sometimes. I wasn't on his side the way he just dismisses things which are/were contemporary when the docu. was made. He lamented how times changed/music changed and tried to say it was the dissolution of our society & culture. Society changes over time-only these days more rapidly than before. He may be a perfect fit for the French and their country tho.

[babycyclops]

The popular media in Australia, both print and tv, are a bunch of culture-less morons.

[Brazoo]

Sounds like one small group of idiots causing all this - and I wonder how much of it has to do with the lingering perceptions that connect comics to children's entertainment.

Norman Lindsay is probably one of Australia's most well know and celebrated artists, and he was also obsessed with sex and his work was deemed "pornography" by some.

[Brazoo]

You know which artists does really mind blowing work but is also totally inoffensive due to his perfectly vanilla mainstream ideas and interests? I can't name one either.

Morally judging artists is popular, but never much fun.

[ctc]

>Sounds like one small group of idiots causing all this

Isn’t it always? Although, in the idiots’ defense; Crumb WAS trying to be shocking and offensive with a lot of his stuff. That was kinda the point. It was about shaking things up. (For ANOTHER great take on this, I recommend the film “Tales of the Rat Fink.”)

That was the thing with the underground guys; mainstream entertainment didn’t ring true.... so they added all the stuff that THEY saw.... the sex, the violence, the ugly bits. It can be tough for someone who comes at it the other way to see any merit to that. Especially for comics. Folks who got into them as kids have a vastly different base template than guys like Crumb who came into it from society’s dingy underbelly.

>I wonder how much of it has to do with the lingering perceptions that connect comics to children's entertainment

I bet it doesn’t even go that far. “EEK! A nipple!” is probably as deep as it runs.

>You know which artists does really mind blowing work but is also totally inoffensive due to his perfectly vanilla mainstream ideas and interests?

Kirby?

Don C.

[Sandman9580]

You know which artists does really mind blowing work but is also totally inoffensive due to his perfectly vanilla mainstream ideas and interests? I can't name one either.

Charles Schulz? Norman Rockwell? Steven Spielberg?