Issue12
The big event today in NYC is one you can’t even get into — it’s been sold out for ages. Aline Kominsky-Crumb and R. Crumb will be appearing together at the NY Public Library. It’s so tight even we can’t get in, but for those who do it’s sure to be a memorable evening.

We were lucky enough to have dinner with Kominsky-Crumb and her publisher a few months back, and she showed us pictures of her paintings, dolls and the incredible art installations which make up her house. All of that and more is on display in her book which is out this week: NEED MORE LOVE. It’s a long overdue look at the career of a cartoonist who has had a huge influence on the genre of autobiographical comics.

At dinner, we asked her if she and Robert were soulmates. She paused a momet and said “Yes; we’ve always been each others biggest supporter.”

Aline will also be the subject of an exhibit at the Adam Baumgold Gallery which opens on Thursday:

DRAWINGS & OTHER WORKS 1971-2006
FEBRUARY 15 – MARCH 17, 2007

Adam Baumgold Gallery presents the exhibition of Aline Kominsky Crumb: Need More Love, Drawings & Other Works 1971-2006. The exhibition coincides with the release of Aline Kominsky Crumb’s graphic memoir Need More Love – a book replete with comic pages, text and photographs recounting the artist’s colorful career and life experiences. Many drawings from the book will be included in the exhibition. This will be Aline Kominsky Crumb’s first New York solo exhibition and the artist will be present at the opening to launch and sign copies of her new book.

Since 1971, Crumb has been one of the seminal figures in American comics. She was one of the first contributors to the groundbreaking Wommen’s Comix, and, with Diane Noomin, founded the underground classic comic Twisted Sisters in 1976. She was one of the first artists to do autobiographical comics and develop the graphic novel form.


One of the comic drawings included in the exhibition is the three page story Nose Job, 1989, a typically densely packed and tightly rendered drawing that is filled with the artist’s painfully humorous, self deprecating observations about the advantages a nose job might bring to a teenager growing up “Jewish” on Long Island in the mid 1960’s. As Crumb says “Just think… I could‘ve ended up looking like Marlo Thomas instead of Danny, if only I’d had a nose job,”

Aline Kominsky Crumb has also been a longtime collaborator with her husband, famed cartoonist, Robert Crumb, on such comic classics as Dirty Laundry Comics, Weirdo magazine, where Ms. Crumb was also an editor, Self Loathing Comics, and their joint work for several years for The New Yorker. Some of these collaborative works will be included in the exhibition, and Ms. Crumb will be interviewed by R. Crumb at the New York Public Library on Valentines Day, February 14.

Aline Kominsky Crumb’s work has been included in exhibitions at Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, Lyon Biennale, Spruth Magers Projekte, Munich, The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, CA., and The Jewish Museum in New York, among others.

The gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday 11:00-5:30 P.M. For additional information please contact Adam Baumgold at (212)861-7338.

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