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Cartoons and dust hit the ICA
And the galleries heat up for fall
BY RANDI HOPKINS

Any list of comic-book genres and characters reads like a map of modern human archetypes. Carl Jung himself could not have given better expression to the competing aspects of our inner selves, from superheroes to underdogs, from Dick Tracy to Dennis the Menace, from Archie to Jughead, from Cathy to Dilbert. And that probably explains our deep personal relationship with these characters, whether we follow them in the funny pages and comic books, on TV, or at the movie theater. Perhaps, then, it’s no surprise that this guilty pleasure — which gives stupefying powers to the merely human, has seriously reduced crime in Gotham, and repeatedly drops the anvil on that Wile E. Coyote — has also been making a major contribution to the world of fine art for more than 40 years, a contribution that is examined from many angles in "Splat Boom Pow! The Influence of Cartoons in Contemporary Art," which opens at the Institute of Contemporary Art this Wednesday.

Featuring more than 60 works of art from the past four decades, "Splat Boom Pow!" takes a look at some of the first sightings (in the early 1960s) of interlopers from the low-culture world of comic books on the high-art scene, when artists like Mel Ramos and Roy Lichtenstein used familiar cartoon iconography in their paintings to critique our consumer society, to reintroduce the figure into our increasingly nonfigurative art, and to cool the hot jets of Abstract Expressionism. The exhibit also presents a host of contemporary artists. Laylah Ali invents her own characters and narratives, drawing on the look of traditional comics to redraw lines of political power and oppression. Raymond Pettibon, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Takashi Murakami, and Elizabeth Murray are a few of the other artists here whose work shares a significant debt to Hanna-Barbera, Walt Disney, and Mad magazine.

That’s not all that’s going on at the ICA: the institute’s coveted annual Artist Prize (Laylah Ali is a previous winner) has gone to Douglas Weathersby, and he’s settled in downstairs. Weathersby, who would have to claim Procter & Gamble rather than Rocky & Bullwinkle as his muse, makes art based on the work he does running his own cleaning service, photographing or physically re-creating (with dust) things like the light falling on an office desk after 5 p.m. or a stain spreading on linoleum in the basement. Humble yet lovable, his pieces provide an earthy counterpoint to the Daring Duos and the Mighty Mice.

Galleries in Boston get busy in September, and some noteworthy shows are on the horizon. The Gallery @ Green Street, always ahead of its time, goes back to school with "Sa Schloff: School Pictures." Schloff has spent the past three years training her camera on post-war schools, capturing a nostalgic, emotionally charged period of our lives through simple, people-less shots of rooms and furniture. Barbara Krakow Gallery opens the season with "Michael Beatty: Low Fat," a fitting title for Beatty’s new, lean wood-and-steel sculptures. But the beauty of his pieces is in their rich associations; it’s Minimalism with sex appeal. And at Brickbottom Gallery, the group exhibition "Homemade" explores aspects of our relationship with hearth and home, including an appreciation of the housedress by artist Anni Abbi, who explores domesticity through traditional housewifely attire.

"Splat Boom Pow! The Influence of Cartoons in Contemporary Art" and "Douglas R. Weathersby: 2003 ICA Artist Prize" are at the Institute of Contemporary Art, 955 Boylston Street, September 17 through January 4; call (617) 266-5152. "Sa Schloff: School Pictures" is at the Gallery @ Green Street, 141 Green Street, in the Green Street MBTA Station on the Orange Line in Jamaica Plain, September 12 through October 18; call (617) 522-0000. "Michael Beatty: Low Fat" is at Barbara Krakow Gallery, 10 Newbury Street, from September 13 through October 22; call (617) 262-2290. "Homemade" is at the Brickbottom Gallery, 1 Fitchburg Street in Somerville, September 12 through October 25; call (617) 776-3410.


Issue Date: September 12 - 18, 2003
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