It sticks around, but doesn't always work.
It would be a mistake to apply a postmodernist reading to "The Funnies," but for those with that habit of mind it would certainly be tempting. Postmodernist thought rejects, among other things, a hierarchy that would distinguish between "bad" and "good" art. In that sense, a show of cartoon, or cartoon-inspired, art would be of equivalent artistic value to, say, a show of Impressionist landscapes. The idea of "quality" in art was a considered a Modernist fiction that was put to rest by Duchamp in the 1920s and Andy Warhol 40 years later. Lots of cartoon-like art, graffiti art, and political art was taken up by the critical and collecting world in the 1980s and early '90s based on postmodernist ideas.
Yet distinctions persist. There is clearly a difference between good art and bad art, although the which is which can sometimes be difficult to discern. Postmodernism has not survived the marketplace of ideas, nor, for that matter, the art marketplace either. The ultimate postmodernist artist and consummate ironist, Jeff Koons, is considered by the marketplace to be the pre-eminent artist of his generation, the best investment there is.
So take "The Funnies" at face value, as a collection of pieces by artists who share an affection for cartoon and comic art, and enjoy it, or not, for what it is.
Related:
Easy on the eyes, Letters to the Portland Editor: March 13, 2009, Groups + solos, More 
- Easy on the eyes
"The Funnies" at Whitney Art Works is a sprawling show of upwards of 150 pieces by 25 artists, all of whom have been brought together by local artist — Jeff Badger.
- Letters to the Portland Editor: March 13, 2009
We are two Maine natives, who attended the True/False Film Festival in Missouri, couldn't agree more with Christopher Gray's account of the festival and the festival experience.
- Groups + solos
First on the list of this year's points of interest is the anticipated Portland Museum of Art Biennial, which opens in early April.
- Rant: We need more artists!
There's just not enough art to festoon all the walls in all the coffee/sandwich/burrito/gelato/bagel/pizza/frogurt shops in this great art-loving, snack-loving city of ours.
- Summer people
Ever wonder why there is so much professional-level art made and shown in Maine, a state with a total population less than that of many minor cities? One answer is that following the fame of people like Winslow Homer, creative types flocked to Maine, often to artists' colonies.
- Weight + measure
The centerpiece, conceptually and physically, of Aaron Stephan's show at Whitney Art Works is "Flat World/Round Map," a cast-iron sphere about six feet in diameter. While not exactly the largest ( "18 Columns" covers more ground and "The Burden Crates" is taller) it creates a center of gravity around itself.
- Structural integrity
The five artists featured in "Stratum," now on view at Whitney Art Works, are diverse in background, medium, and scale, but they comfortably crowd the gallery's two rooms with sculptures, paintings, and drawings that respond to the relationships exposed by stripping back layers and how meaning and interpretation shift when new layers are presented.
- Found, and created
While aesthetically there is little to compare between Rebecca FitzPatrick's "Thread" show and "Multiples" by Owen F. Smith, together on view at Whitney Art Works this month, both artists appropriate found materials, are impressively prolific, and identify with a post- or anti-war movement of the previous century.
- Ducks and dicks
If the American Repertory Theatre is renewing its vows to David Mamet, several of whose plays it premiered in the 1990s, the double bill of The Duck Variations and Sexual Perversity in Chicago will do nicely for something old and something blue.
- Conversation piece
Leon Johnson explains his trans-historical-post-colonial-dinner-wait-what?!
- State of the arts
In Portland, and around Southern Maine, developing trends hold promise for our changing, but still cantankerously distinct, artistic character to act as a new kind of cultural reflection.
- Less
Topics:
Museum And Gallery
, Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, Ken Greenleaf, More
, Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, Ken Greenleaf, Whitney Art Works, Art, The Funnies, Less
