Comics Versus Art - Softcover

Beaty, Bart

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1442612045 ISBN 13: 9781442612044

Publisher: University of Toronto Press, 2012

Synopsis

On the surface, the relationship between comics and the ‘high’ arts once seemed simple; comic books and strips could be mined for inspiration, but were not themselves considered legitimate art objects. Though this traditional distinction has begun to erode, the worlds of comics and art continue to occupy vastly different social spaces.

Comics Versus Art examines the relationship between comics and the most important institutions of the art world, including museums, auction houses, and the art press. Bart Beaty's analysis centres around two questions: why were comics excluded from the history of art for most of the twentieth century, and what does it mean that comics production is now more closely aligned with the art world? Approaching this relationship for the first time through the lens of the sociology of culture, Beaty advances a completely novel approach to the comics form.

About this title

About the Author:

Bart Beaty is a professor in the Department of English at the University of Calgary.

Review:

“Comics Versus Art is an intriguing text for readers of comics, and an illuminating look at the theoretical underpinnings of what we call – and refuse to call – art.”

(Ian Daffern Quill and Quire)

‘This solid, sound, intriguing book will set the discourse on art and comics for a considerable time. Essential. All readers.’ (J.A. Lent Choice Magazine vol 50:07:2013)

‘Excellent investigation of the world of comics... In writing a history of ways the comic world has been taken up during modern era and beyond through sociology of art perspective, Beaty has made a valuable new contribution to the study of comic form. (Beverly Haun Canadian Literature 219, winter 2013)

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Toronto Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1442612045
• ISBN 13: 9781442612044
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288