Art Spiegelman, And Here My Troubles Began, sketch for the front cover of the first American edition of MAUS 2 (c. 1981) [Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver BC, Feb 16-Jun 9] © Art Spiegelman

Art Spiegelman, Self-Portrait with Maus Mask, cover for The Village Voice, June 6, 1989, from Spiegelman, behind the mirror [Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver BC, Feb 16-Jun 9] Portfolio of Galerie Martel, Paris, 2009 © Art Spiegelman

Art Spiegelman, Valentine’s Day, sketch for the cover of The New Yorker, February 15, 1993, gouache [Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver BC, Feb 16-Jun 9] © Art Spiegelman

Following their success with the 2008 hit show KRAZY! The Delirious World of Anime + Comics + Video Games + Art, the Vancouver Art Gallery offers a four-decade retrospective of the work of New York comic artist Art Spiegelman. Spiegelman is internationally acclaimed for his use of underground “comix” as a venue for cultural commentary and for the oversized magazine RAW, which he published from 1980 to 1991. Spiegelman won a Pulitzer Prize in 1992 for his graphic novel Maus: A Survivor's Tale, which reenacts scenes of Nazis, Poles and Jews in World War II.

The VAG exhibition features more than 400 preparatory drawings, cover illustrations for The New Yorker, photographs, storyboards, sketches, studies and selections from “comix” created in the 1970s, his 13-year production of Maus, and his Little Lit anthologies for children. Recent work includes illustrations and comic art from a work addressing 9/11, In the Shadow of No Towers.

The exhibit was curated by Rina Zavagli-Mattotti and co-produced by the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Ludwig Museum in Cologne, Germany and the Jewish Museum, New York. It was exhibited in Ludwig in 2012, the first major exhibition of his work since the MoMA exhibition of Maus in 1992. Spiegelman is a prolific writer, illustrator and graphic designer who continues to be politically active in international art circles and social media.

www.vanartgallery.bc.ca

Mia Johnson