Over the last three centuries, artists have adopted comic strategies as a vital mode of political, social, and institutional critique. They have employed a range of expressive forms, including caricature, the grotesque, parody, and "drag" to shape public opinion, advance critical discourse, and question boundaries and conventions of art and society. This Teaching Gallery exhibition explores this rich and diverse tradition through a range of works produced between the eighteenth century and the present from seven North American and European countries. It features mass media items, including satirical journals, comic strips, and illustrated books, as well as modern and contemporary art objects that appropriate the language or style of popular comic forms.
This Teaching Gallery exhibition is organized by Bryna Campbell, PhD candidate in the Department of Art History & Archaeology, in conjunction with the course "Caricatures, Comic Strips, and Beyond," offered by Washington University's Department of Art History & Archaeology and University College in summer 2010.