Just got back from a remarkable double opening at the Society of Illustrators. The Zap Show: A Cultural Revolution opened tonight, as well as a terrific retrospective of Rick Meyerowitz's work from the National Lampoon.
One of the more striking things about the work of the Zap Comix artists is how small they worked: the pages are very close to printed size yet certainly don't skimp on monklike detail. Everybody is represented: Robert Crumb, Gilbert Shelton, Rick Griffin, S.Clay Wilson, Robert Williams, Spain Rodriguez.
On the other hand, Rick Meyerowitz worked quite large. He enjoyed a long relationship with the Lampoon, and all of his "greatest hits" are in the show. Mona Gorilla? Here. NatLamp's Inferno? Present. The bill for the Last Supper? Accounted for. Not to mention the original film poster for Animal House.
I turned into "that guy" there, taking a metric crapton of photos, but I'm only sharing the one of the hung exhibition poster, because you need to see these shows in person and no crumby phone photos will do this stuff justice. You need to see it with your nose pressed up against these works to see how remarkable they are. I haven't stuck my face this close to a work of art since a museum guard wanted me to stop breathing on some Hendrick Goltzius pieces at the Met.
It was great catching up with everybody at the event. And a special thanks to Breann McGovern of SOI for convincing me to get my ass over there.
