A collage of the Crumb family
A collage of the Crumb family

R. Crumb, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, and Sophie Crumb: Sauve qui peut ! (Run for Your Life)

David Zwirner is pleased to present an exhibition of works by R. Crumb, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, and Sophie Crumb, on view at the gallery’s Paris location. This will be the first major joint presentation of husband and wife Crumb and Kominsky-Crumb and their daughter, Sophie Crumb—who have all lived in France for the past thirty years—since the 2007 exhibition La Famille Crumb at Le Musée de Sérignan (now Musée régional d’art contemporain Occitanie), France.

By the time they met in 1971, Aline Kominsky-Crumb and R. Crumb had each already established themselves at the forefront of the underground comics scene: Kominsky-Crumb with her autobiographical comics that appeared in the influential all-female anthology Wimmen’s Comix, and Crumb with his genre-defining comic strips of the 1960s and early 1970s like Fritz the Cat, Mr. Natural, and Keep on Truckin’. As pioneering graphic artists, the two have maintained their own distinctive practices while also frequently collaborating on projects such as Aline and Bob’s Dirty Laundry Comics (1974) and, more recently, Bad Diet & Bad Hair Destroy Human Civilization (2020). Like her parents, Sophie Crumb, who was born in 1981, is recognized for her singular graphic style that trenchantly reflects on her life, her family, and French and American society and culture, all filtered through her own unique generational lens. 

 

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Image: Family photos of R. Crumb, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, and Sophie Crumb. Courtesy Aline Kominsky-Crumb.


David Zwirner a le plaisir de présenter une exposition d’œuvres de R. Crumb, d’Aline Kominsky-Crumb et de Sophie Crumb, dans les espaces de la galerie à Paris. Il s’agit de la première grande présentation conjointe des époux Crumb et Kominsky-Crumb et de leur fille Sophie Crumb 
—installés en France depuis trente ans—suite à l’exposition La Famille Crumb au Musée de Sérignan (aujourd’hui Musée régional d’art contemporain Occitanie) en 2007.  ͑

Lorsqu’ils se sont rencontrés en 1971, Aline Kominsky-Crumb et R. Crumb s’étaient déjà imposés à l’avant-garde de la scène underground de la bande dessinée : Aline Kominsky-Crumb avec ses bandes dessinées autobiographiques parues dans l’anthologie référentielle et entièrement féminine Wimmen’s Comix, et R. Crumb en définissant un genre de bande dessinée des années 60 et du début des années 70 avec Fritz the Cat, Mr. Natural et Keep on Truckin’. Pionniers dans leur domaine, les deux artistes ont conservé leur propre pratique tout en collaborant fréquemment à des projets tels que Aline and Bob’s Dirty Laundry Comics (1974) et, plus récemment, à Bad Diet & Bad Hair Destroy Human Civilization (2020). À l’instar de ses parents, Sophie Crumb, née en 1981, est reconnue pour son style graphique singulier qui se réfère de manière tranchante à sa vie, à sa famille, aux sociétés et cultures française et américaine, le tout passé au filtre de son point de vue personnel et générationnel. 

 

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Dates
February 10March 26, 2022
Artist
R. Crumb, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Sophie Crumb
A detail of That Wacky Cartoon Couple Aline and R. Crumb by R. CRUMB dated 2021

R. Crumb, That Wacky Cartoon Couple Aline & R. Crumb, 2021 (detail)

R. Crumb, That Wacky Cartoon Couple Aline & R. Crumb, 2021 (detail)

Featuring both new and past individual and collaborative works by R. Crumb, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, and Sophie Crumb, this exhibition offers viewers a rare opportunity to see the stylistic and conceptual links between this prodigious family of artists, as well as the ways in which all three have forged their own artistic paths.

A two-part ink and correction fluid on paper artwork by R. Crumb, titled That Wacky Cartoon Couple Aline & R. Crumb, dated 2021.

R. Crumb

That Wacky Cartoon Couple Aline & R. Crumb, 2021
Ink and correction fluid on paper and watercolor on xerox copy
Two (2) parts
Overall dimensions variable
An ink on paper artwork by R. Crumb, titled Fear the Invisible, dated 2021.

R. Crumb

Fear the Invisible, 2021
Ink and correction fluid on paper
11 x 8 1/2 inches (28 x 21.7 cm)
Framed: 17 5/8 x 15 x 1 1/8 inches (44.8 x 38.2 cm)

For over four decades, R. Crumb (b. 1943) has used the popular medium of the comic book to address the absurdity of social conventions, political disillusionment, irony, racial and gender stereotypes, sexual fantasies, and fetishes. Seeming to possess an outsider's perspective—a self-conscious stance that the artist frequently relates to his personal life—Crumb often features himself in his work, exploring his own neuroses through self-caricature that dramatizes incidents in his own life and surroundings.

An ink and correction fluid on paper artwork by R. Crumb, titled Portrait of His Cranky Old Man Self, dated 2021.

R. Crumb

Portrait of His Cranky Old Man Self, 2021
Ink and correction fluid on paper
11 x 8 1/2 inches (28 x 21.7 cm)
Framed: 17 1/2 x 15 inches (44.5 x 38.2 cm)

“Crumb’s unflinching honesty and lack of an easily pegged or marketable position are hallmarks of his aesthetic and are crucial to his output as a whole: to lay bare and eviscerate the tangled contradictions of our often hypocritical social fabric and continue to explore what it means to be a thinking, conflicted human being in this culture.”

—Todd Hignite, Crumb: De l’Underground à la Genèse

An ink and correction fluid on paper artwork by R. Crumb, titled The Man Who Knew Too Much, dated 2021.

R. Crumb

The Man Who Knew Too Much, 2021
Ink and correction fluid on paper
11 x 8 3/8 inches (28.1 x 21.4 cm)
Framed: 17 1/2 x 15 inches (44.5 x 38.2 cm)
An ink on paper artwork by R. Crumb, titled Wounded Psyche, dated 2021.

R. Crumb

Wounded Psyche, 2021
Ink and correction fluid on paper
11 x 8 1/2 inches (27.7 x 21.5 cm)
Framed: 17 3/8 x 14 7/8 inches (44.2 x 37.9 cm)

“[Crumb] incarnates the decadence of the white man, still dominant but in practice a physical and moral wreck. This interlocking of an intense analysis of society and his own private life entitles him to a vitriolic assessment of contemporaries no better than himself.”

—Sébastien Gokalp, Crumb: De l’Underground à la Genèse

A detail of Wounded Psyche by R. CRUMB dated 2021

R. Crumb, Wounded Psyche, 2021 (detail)

R. Crumb, Wounded Psyche, 2021 (detail)

A detail of Wounded Psyche by R. CRUMB dated 2021

R. Crumb, Wounded Psyche, 2021 (detail)

R. Crumb, Wounded Psyche, 2021 (detail)

“There's a certain moment, I don't know what year it would be, where Robert’s work affected every cartoonist, even somebody like Saul Steinberg....It was across the board.”

—Art Spiegelman, Dialogues: The David Zwirner Podcast

An ink and correction fluid on paper artwork by R. Crumb, titled Too Much Information, dated 2022.

R. Crumb

Too Much Information, 2022
Ink and correction fluid on paper
11 x 8 1/2 (28.1 x 21.7 cm)
Framed: 17 1/2 x 15 inches (44.5 x 38.2 cm)
An ink and correction fluid on paper artwork by R. Crumb, titled The Distinctive Portrait of Aline, dated 2022.

R. Crumb

The Distinctive Portrait of Aline, 2022
Ink and correction fluid on paper
11 x 8 1/2 inches (28.1 x 21.6 cm)
Framed: 17 5/8 x 14 7/8 inches (44.8 x 37.9 cm)

One collaborative highlight in the exhibition dates back to 1992—when Sophie was only eleven years old—and humorously addresses the dynamics prompting the family’s departure for France. In one panel, R. Crumb says, “I never know what to tell people when they ask me why we’re moving to France,” to which Kominsky-Crumb responds a few panels later, “Lousy school, too much crime, schluburban sprawl, media overload … flags … baseball caps … self-help groups, shit … I dunno.… No real reason!”

A 15-page ink, correction fluid, and collage on paper byAline Kominsky-Crumb, R. Crumb, and Sophie Crumb, titled Aline 'n' Bob 'n' Sophie in Euro-Dirty Laundry: "Merci au Revoir", dated 1992.

Aline Kominsky-Crumb, R. Crumb, and Sophie Crumb

Aline 'n' Bob 'n' Sophie in Euro-Dirty Laundry: "Merci au Revoir", 1992
Ink, correction fluid, and collage on paper
Fifteen (15) pages
Each: 14 x 11 inches (35.6 x 27.9 cm)
Pages from Aline 'n' Bob 'n' Sophie in Euro-Dirty Laundry: "Merci au Revoir" dated 1992

Aline Kominsky-Crumb, R. Crumb, and Sophie Crumb, Aline 'n' Bob 'n' Sophie in Euro-Dirty Laundry: "Merci au Revoir", 1992

Aline Kominsky-Crumb, R. Crumb, and Sophie Crumb, Aline 'n' Bob 'n' Sophie in Euro-Dirty Laundry: "Merci au Revoir", 1992

Pages from Aline 'n' Bob 'n' Sophie in Euro-Dirty Laundry: "Merci au Revoir" dated 1992

Aline Kominsky-Crumb, R. Crumb, and Sophie Crumb, Aline 'n' Bob 'n' Sophie in Euro-Dirty Laundry: "Merci au Revoir", 1992

Aline Kominsky-Crumb, R. Crumb, and Sophie Crumb, Aline 'n' Bob 'n' Sophie in Euro-Dirty Laundry: "Merci au Revoir", 1992

Pages from Aline 'n' Bob 'n' Sophie in Euro-Dirty Laundry: "Merci au Revoir" dated 1992

Aline Kominsky-Crumb, R. Crumb, and Sophie Crumb, Aline 'n' Bob 'n' Sophie in Euro-Dirty Laundry: "Merci au Revoir", 1992

Aline Kominsky-Crumb, R. Crumb, and Sophie Crumb, Aline 'n' Bob 'n' Sophie in Euro-Dirty Laundry: "Merci au Revoir", 1992

Pages from Aline 'n' Bob 'n' Sophie in Euro-Dirty Laundry: "Merci au Revoir" dated 1992

Aline Kominsky-Crumb, R. Crumb, and Sophie Crumb, Aline 'n' Bob 'n' Sophie in Euro-Dirty Laundry: "Merci au Revoir", 1992

Aline Kominsky-Crumb, R. Crumb, and Sophie Crumb, Aline 'n' Bob 'n' Sophie in Euro-Dirty Laundry: "Merci au Revoir", 1992

Pages from Aline 'n' Bob 'n' Sophie in Euro-Dirty Laundry: "Merci au Revoir" dated 1992

Aline Kominsky-Crumb, R. Crumb, and Sophie Crumb, Aline 'n' Bob 'n' Sophie in Euro-Dirty Laundry: "Merci au Revoir", 1992

Aline Kominsky-Crumb, R. Crumb, and Sophie Crumb, Aline 'n' Bob 'n' Sophie in Euro-Dirty Laundry: "Merci au Revoir", 1992

Though often humorous, many of the collaborative works also address less mundane concerns, instead probing the nature of the artists’ relationships with each other and tackling topics such as motherhood, abortion, and sex. A more recent collaboration, Crumb Family Covid Exposé (2021), reflects on how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the family’s behavior and their differing responses to it.

A 10-page ink and correction fluid on paper artwork by Aline Kominsky-Crumb and R. Crumb, titled Crumb Family Covid Exposé, dated 2021.

Aline Kominsky-Crumb, R. Crumb, and Sophie Crumb

Crumb Family Covid Exposé, 2021
Ink and correction fluid on paper
Ten (10) pages
Each: 16 7/8 x 14 inches (43 x 35.5 cm)
Framed: 23 3/8 x 20 3/8 inches (59.5 x 51.9 cm)
Details from Crumb Family Covid Exposé by Aline Kominsky-Crumb and R. Crumb dated 2021
Aline Kominsky-Crumb and R. Crumb, Crumb Family Covid Exposé, 2021
Aline Kominsky-Crumb and R. Crumb, Crumb Family Covid Exposé, 2021
Details from Crumb Family Covid Exposé by Aline Kominsky-Crumb and R. Crumb dated 2021

Aline Kominsky-Crumb and R. Crumb, Crumb Family Covid Exposé, 2021

Aline Kominsky-Crumb and R. Crumb, Crumb Family Covid Exposé, 2021

Details from Crumb Family Covid Exposé by Aline Kominsky-Crumb and R. Crumb dated 2021

Aline Kominsky-Crumb and R. Crumb, Crumb Family Covid Exposé, 2021

Aline Kominsky-Crumb and R. Crumb, Crumb Family Covid Exposé, 2021

Details from Crumb Family Covid Exposé by Aline Kominsky-Crumb and R. Crumb dated 2021

Aline Kominsky-Crumb and R. Crumb, Crumb Family Covid Exposé, 2021

Aline Kominsky-Crumb and R. Crumb, Crumb Family Covid Exposé, 2021

Details from Crumb Family Covid Exposé by Aline Kominsky-Crumb and R. Crumb dated 2021
Aline Kominsky-Crumb and R. Crumb, Crumb Family Covid Exposé, 2021
Aline Kominsky-Crumb and R. Crumb, Crumb Family Covid Exposé, 2021
A detail of Crumb Family Covid Exposé by Aline Kominsky-Crumb and R. Crumb dated 2021

Aline Kominsky-Crumb and R. Crumb, Crumb Family Covid Exposé, 2021 (detail)

Aline Kominsky-Crumb and R. Crumb, Crumb Family Covid Exposé, 2021 (detail)

An ink, acrylic, and glitter pen on paper drawing by Aline Kominsky-Crumb, titled Self-portrait (Cancer-free Survivor), dated 2021.

Aline Kominsky-Crumb

Self-portrait (Cancer-free Survivor), 2021
Ink, acrylic, and glitter pen on paper
11 x 8 1/2 inches (28 x 21.7 cm)
Framed: 18 3/8 x 16 1/2 inches (46.8 x 41.9 cm)

Best known for her confessional mode of storytelling and her expressionist-inspired drawing style, Aline Kominsky-Crumb (b. 1948) has been a pioneering figure in the world of comics since 1971. As Hillary Chute notes, “Kominsky-Crumb arrived in the underground comics scene and made her way, creating out of whole cloth a funny, courageous, and tonally complex aesthetic idiom and opening the floodgates for raw autobiographical stories to take shape in comics form.”

A detail of Self Portrait (Cancer-free Survivor) by Aline Kominsky-Crumb dated 2021

Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Self Portrait (Cancer-free Survivor), 2021 (detail)

Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Self Portrait (Cancer-free Survivor), 2021 (detail)

“Her clenched, emphatic style echoes German Expressionist woodblock in its powerful contrasts of black and white, and her female faces...have a sometimes uncontainable fierceness.”

—Roberta Smith, The New York Times

A detail of Self Portrait by Aline Kominsky-Crumb dated 2021

Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Self Portrait, 2021 (detail)

Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Self Portrait, 2021 (detail)

An ink, correction fluid and graphite on paper artwork by Aline Kominsky-Crumb, titled Self-portrait, dated 2021.

Aline Kominsky-Crumb

Self-portrait, 2021
Ink, correction fluid and graphite on paper
11 x 8 1/2 inches (28.1 x 21.6 cm)
Framed: 19 1/2 x 17 5/8 inches (49.5 x 44.7 cm)
An ink and graphite on paper drawing by Aline Kominsky-Crumb, titled Before I Lived in France, dated 2021.

Aline Kominsky-Crumb

Before I Lived in France, 2021
Ink and graphite on paper
9 5/8 x 13 3/4 inches (24.5 x 35 cm)
Framed: 16 1/8 x 18 3/8 inches (41.1 x 46.8 cm)

“As opposed to being depressing or self-deprecating, this non-continuous, unfixed view of self and proliferating potential undergirds Kominsky-Crumb’s work in the most positive way: it models how selves shift and change with time—embodying contradictions in order to keep on living life to the fullest.”

—Hillary Chute, Love That Bunch

An untitled watercolor and ink on paper artwork by Sophie Crumb, dated 2021.

Sophie Crumb

Untitled, 2021
Watercolor and ink on paper
11 3/4 x 8 1/4 inches (29.7 x 21 cm)

Like her parents, Sophie Crumb (b. 1981) is recognized for her singular graphic style that trenchantly reflects on her life, her family, and French and American society and culture, all filtered through her own unique generational lens. Her portraits and illustrations vary from surreal, naturalistic drawings that highlight her skills as a draftsman to more exaggerated and comical portrayals. Her drawings often utilize much more shading and chiaroscuro than her parents’ work, lending them a noirish and theatrical quality.

A detail from an untitled painting by Sophie Crumb dated 2021

Sophie Crumb, Untitled, 2021 (detail)

Sophie Crumb, Untitled, 2021 (detail)

An untitled watercolor, ink on paper and correction fluid on paper artwork by Sophie Crumb, undated.

Sophie Crumb

Untitled, n.d.
Watercolor, ink on paper and correction fluid on paper
7 7/8 x 5 1/2 inches (20 x 14 cm)
Framed: 12 5/8 x 10 1/4 inches (32 x 26 cm)
An untitled watercolor and ink on paper artwork by Sophie Crumb, dated 2021.

Sophie Crumb

Untitled, 2021
Watercolor and ink on paper
12 1/4 x 9 1/8 inches (31.2 x 23.2 cm)
Framed: 16 7/8 x 13 inches (42.9 x 33.1 cm)

“Sophie was a prolific artist starting at a very early age. How much of this is genetic and how much is behavioral, I have no idea. Robert and I were drawing comics more or less daily, so for Sophie drawing must have seemed like the natural thing to do...She drew in a wacky personal style and always had a strong, complete vision of her own universe.”

—Aline Kominsky-Crumb

A watercolor and ink on paper drawing by Sophie Crumb, called Untitled (Anzor), dated 2022.

Sophie Crumb

Untitled (Anzor), 2022
Watercolor and ink on paper
11 3/4 x 8 1/4 inches (29.7 x 21 cm)

“I think that what audiences responded to was the frankness and honesty of the Crumbs. This honesty allowed the viewer access to a personal connection or commonality with the family that many were not comfortable admitting to, even with themselves.”

—Terry Zwigoff, Crumb Comics: The Whole Family Is Crazy!

A stop-motion animated gif of Aline Kominsky-Crumb and R. Crumb kissing at the opening of their exhibition.
A detail from Sauve Qui Peut ! dated 2022

Announcing a new Crumb Family Zine: Sauve qui peut !


Inquire about works by The Crumbs

An installation view of the exhibition, R. Crumb, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, and Sophie Crumb: Sauve qui peut ! (Run for Your Life), at David Zwirner in Paris, dated 2022.
An installation view of the exhibition, R. Crumb, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, and Sophie Crumb: Sauve qui peut ! (Run for Your Life), at David Zwirner in Paris, dated 2022.
An installation view of the exhibition, R. Crumb, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, and Sophie Crumb: Sauve qui peut ! (Run for Your Life), at David Zwirner in Paris, dated 2022.
An installation view of the exhibition, R. Crumb, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, and Sophie Crumb: Sauve qui peut ! (Run for Your Life), at David Zwirner in Paris, dated 2022.
An installation view of the exhibition, R. Crumb, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, and Sophie Crumb: Sauve qui peut ! (Run for Your Life), at David Zwirner in Paris, dated 2022.
An installation view of the exhibition, R. Crumb, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, and Sophie Crumb: Sauve qui peut ! (Run for Your Life), at David Zwirner in Paris, dated 2022.
An installation view of the exhibition, R. Crumb, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, and Sophie Crumb: Sauve qui peut ! (Run for Your Life), at David Zwirner in Paris, dated 2022.
An installation view of the exhibition, R. Crumb, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, and Sophie Crumb: Sauve qui peut ! (Run for Your Life), at David Zwirner in Paris, dated 2022.

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