BOLDTYPE ISSUE #47: Artwork By
The cover design for this issue of Boldtype is a detail of eggsplosion, a 2002 painting by Michel Majerus. The large-scale work is reproduced in Comic Abstraction: Image-Breaking, Image Making, a catalogue of the 2007 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Though the exhibit contained only 30 works, the catalogue delves deeper and contains 113 images from the show's 13 young artists.
In eggsplosion Majerus fearlessly samples from history, fine art, and pop culture, with nods to video games, commercialism, and the Pollock school of abstract painting. A Luxembourg artist born in 1967, Majerus was influenced by de Kooning, Twombly, Warhol, and others. He died in a 2002 accident, and eggsplosion is one of his final efforts in an unfinished series.
Comic Abstraction: Image-Breaking, Image-Making, which is published by MoMA and distributed by D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, presents the comics-based abstractions of Majerus and his peers as the posterity of Pop Art. In an essay and a series of conversations with the artists, curator Roxana Marcoci also draws out their takes on art history, global conflict, and philosophy. Her essay explores how these artists, all working in the last 15 years, use cartoons to communicate high-brow ideas in what some once regarded as a low-brow style.
-Lauren McKee
