Frank, is a character created by artist Jim Woodring that exists in the medium of Graphic Novels. I was exposed to Woodring's work while visiting the Boise Art Museum. After reading a collection of work about Frank, I'm sold. The work is whimsical, it's charming, and at a times it's so dark and enigmatic that it escapes classification. At this stage, the only reaction that seems appropriate is to laugh but you feel kind of weird about.
The idea of popular art being shown within an arena dedicated to fine art is one of the most interesting aspects of my visit. I've recently been delving into the the arguments surrounding these two spheres presented by Greenberg and then rebutted by Alloway in reference to Pop Art.. The presentation of this work in an art gallery recalls ideas of Pop Art's appropriation of popular images. Of course this existed in entirely different contexts. The original work was not exactly being appreciated on its own terms. Structuralist ideas of creating new meanings out of everyday symbols were being expressed. The work of Jim Woodring is being presented as it is: Art, with a capital A. I still feel that ideas of appropriation are at play. If the gallery space exists as representation of culture, then including outside art represents at least a statement.
Graphic novels exist in the world of mass art, or least they have historically. Have they now been recognized finally as an element of high culture? Comparisons to film are hard to escape in this instance. There are films that act as and are understood as art. There are also films that are blatantly kistch. It seems as though the fine art community is beginning to recognize a growth in certain graphic novels that warrants a separation between graphic novels as art and graphic novels as kitsch.
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