TEXAS PERFORMING ARTS
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
THE UT DEPARTMENT OF ART & ART HISTORY
AND BOOK PEOPLE
PRESENTS

ROBERT CRUMB & ART SPIEGELMAN:
A CONVERSATION HOSTED BY FRANÇOISE MOULY

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2009, 8:00 P.M.
AT BASS CONCERT HALL

TICKETS ON SALE NOW!

Pre-Performance Lecture by Sam Hurt, Artist
7:00 p.m. in the Bass Concert Hall lobby

“Art Spiegelman…to the comics world is a Michelangelo and a Medici both, an influential artist who is also an impresario and an enabler of others.” – New York Times Magazine

“Mr. Crumb…excruciatingly funny satirist of all things modern and progressively high-minded, and an intrepid explorer of his own twisted psyche – remains the genre’s gold standard.” – New York Times

In a rare one-night only event, three of the most influential comic artists of the last forty years come together to discuss their careers, comic books, cover designs and culture.
In the 1960s Robert Crumb was at the forefront of a revolution in American alternative comic arts. Considered a grandmaster of his artform, he penned well-known characters and series including Mr. Natural, Fritz the Cat, Joe Blow and Keep on Truckin’. His colorful career has been shot through with legal battles, obscenity arrests and critical acclaim. By the mid-‘80s Crumb had emerged as an artist of international significance and notoriety.
Art Spiegelman is an award-winning American comic artist who is best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel memoir, Maus, a treatise on the Holocaust. Among the genre’s most celebrated counter-culture icons, he is also an editor and advocate for the comic arts genre and is married to artist and designer Françoise Mouly with whom he frequently collaborates.
Mouly was born in Paris and is highly regarded for her work with RAW, a showcase publication for cutting edge, mature comic art. She has also served as the arts editor of The New Yorker since 1993 and has curated several exhibits featuring the literary magazines famous cover art.
Robert Crumb has just released a new work titled The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb. From Creation to the death of Joseph, Crumb covers all 50 chapters of the Book of Genesis, revealingly illustrated as never before. Envisioning the first book of the bible like no one before him, Robert Crumb reveals the story of Genesis in a profoundly honest and deeply moving way.
Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly have recently worked together to edit
The TOON Treasury of Classic Children’s Comics, released in 2009. This unprecedented collection of the greatest comics for children is a treasury created for young readers that focuses on comic books, not strips, and contains humorous stories that range from a single-page to eight or even twenty-two pages, each complete and self-contained. The comics have been culled from the Golden Age of comic books, roughly the 1940s through the early 1960s, and feature the best examples of works by such renowned artists and writers as Carl Barks, John Stanley, Sheldon Mayer, Walt Kelly, Basil Wolverton, and George Carlson, among many, many others.

Book People will be on hand at the event selling copies of the artists’ new books.

Note: For Mature Audiences – Sexual Content

Campus & Community Engagement Event:
Pre-Performance Lecture by Sam Hurt, Artist
Friday, November 13, 2009, 7:00 p.m.
Bass Concert Hall lobby

Sam Hurt works in animation, sculpture, painting and cartoons. He created the comic strip ‘Eyebeam’, that ran in a number of daily papers throughout the 1980s. In later years, he has focused more on sculpting and painting.

CALENDAR LISTING

Friday, November 13, 2009, 8:00 pm – Texas Performing Arts presents Robert Crumb & Art Spiegelman: A Conversation hosted by Françoise Mouly at Bass Concert Hall (E. 23rd St. and Robert Dedman Dr). A map of the campus:
http://www.TexasPerformingArts.org/visit/maps_directions. Tickets ($26 – $52 / $10 student tickets / discounted tickets available for UT faculty & staff, seniors and Military) are on sale now at authorized ticket outlets, which include the Bass Concert Hall Box Office, most H-E-B stores and all Texas Box Office outlets, online at www.TexasPerformingrts.org or by calling (512) 477-6060 or (800) 982-BEVO.

PRESS CONTACT:
Gene Bartholomew
512.471.0632
gbartholomew@TexasPerformingArts.org

Download a PDF version (348 KB) of the Crumb, Spiegelman, Mouly press release