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ARTWORKS ASSEMBLE!! a superhero inspired art show by BobKessel

Mar 6th, 2015 by admin

The show at MoCCA (Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art in New York City) primarily consists of prints on paper roughly 3 by 3 feet square, or should I say in many cases, diamond shaped. The art, much like comicbooks, is made out of black lines, in this case, straight lines, some razor thin, some massively thick, surrounding primary colors of red, blue and yellow. To describe Bob Kessel’s art in simple terms, his work is… simple.

“Making the simple complicated is commonplace;
making the complicated simple,
awesomely simple, that’s creativity.”

- CHARLES MINGUS

This remark provides a clue to an aspect of Bob Kessel’s work that his apparent iconoclasm and irreverence have tended to conceal. He has remained in an important way a classical artist. Along with the images of superheroes there is an abiding commitment to composition. The language of form is what guides him to what lies behind his trivialized subjects, whether they come from pop culture or the history of art. Like all great artists, he uses what is around him for inspiration, commentary, and, in Kessel’s case, a healthy amount of deconstructionist verve and wit. Like a jazz player, he takes a familiar tune and then uses that as a takeoff point to do his own original riffs on the theme.

Bob Kessel, born and raised in New York City, says about the show, “Historically, artists have always painted mythological figures, Hercules, Venus, Apollo. Superheroes represent the new modern myths, so it stands to reason that they should be the subject of our modern art.”

Those familiar with Bob Kessel’s artwork know that he works in series. Many are based on his extensive knowledge of art history with takeoffs on Picasso’s Minotaurs, Matisse’s Odalisques, or Cezanne’s Bathers. He mixes together different art styles to produce unexpected hybrids. Like Japanese Kaiju (monsters) with Italian Futurism, or Hello Kitty with Edvard Munch.

Now Bob Kessel has created a new art series where he turns his Fine Art sensibilities on the world of Comics. He describes this show as, “The Comicbook World meets the Fine Art World.” Neither one will be the same again.