Splat Boom Pow!: The Influence of Cartoons in Contemporary Art

127 pages, illustrations (chiefly colour); 25 cm. Catalogue of an exhibition held at Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, April 12 to June 29, 2003; and other venues. Tight, clean copy. *** "Splat--ouch--Boom--ouch--Pow! That hurts. Presenting work by 35 nationally and internationally recognized contemporary artists who have incorporated the imagery, technique, or style of the comics in their work, Splat Boom Pow! makes evident the shift from traditional literary narratives to a visual language of myth as seen in comic strips over the last 40 years. Taking an in-depth look at the current phenomenon of cartoon-referencing work, its connection to the pop art movement of the 1960s, and the social and cultural factors that have shaped our understanding of the comics as a form of popular communication, Splat Boom Pow! includes work by three generations of artists, among them Laylah Ali, Michael Ray Charles, Roy Lichtenstein, Takashi Murakami, Elizabeth Murray, Chris Ofili, Sigmar Polke, Peter Saul, Kenny Scharf, Jim Shaw and Andy Warhol." - Publisher. *** CONTENTS: Foreword, by Marti Mayo; Quote and be damned .?, by Roger Sabin; Between a bedrock and a nuclear power plant, by Valerie Cassel; Against nature, by Bernard Welt; A cartoon timeline, by Jamie Coville; Plates: Catalogue of the exhibition; Splat: squashing the force field of pop icons; Boom: Exploding the language of art through alien technology; Pow: slammin' into Mt. Mythomania and spewing alter egos and new superheroes; Artists' biographies and bibliographies, by Clare Elliott. *** Includes: Laylah Ali - Jean-Michel Basquiat - Michael Ray Charles - Renee Cox - Kojo Griffin - Trenton Doyle Hancock - Kerry James Marshall - Julie Mehretu - Robert Pruitt. Size: 8vo.…