Advertisement
Proudly Canadian, obsessively Toronto. Subscribe to Toronto Life!
Culture

See a radiant retrospective of Art  Spiegelman’s comic (and not-so-comic) art

By Emily Landau
Copy link
House of Maus: the irreverent cartoonist Art  Spiegelman gets a radiant retrospective

Art Spiegelman never wanted a retrospective. “It feels like walking around among a bunch of tombstones,” he recently pronounced. It’s no surprise the famously anti-establishment cartoonist would be ambivalent about hanging his work in museum halls: he’s a cultural heretic who got his start scribbling satirical cartoons in the early ’70s as part of an underground comics ring in San Francisco. In 1991, he completed his Pulitzer-winning Maus, a disturbing parable based on his father’s experience in the Holocaust, that reimagined the Jews as mice and the Nazis as cats.

Just as Spiegelman inadvertently elevated comic books into literature, he also transformed cartoons into high art. His new AGO show, which opens on Saturday, documents every stage of his creative ­trajectory: his earliest comic strips, the discarded drafts of his 1993 New Yorker cover depicting a Hasidic man kissing a black woman, and studies for a stained glass panel he designed for his alma mater, New York’s High School of Art and Design. Most affecting is the ­section dedicated to Maus, plastered with character studies and family artifacts, where a sound system plays recordings of ­Spiegelman interviewing his father. Click through the gallery for a look at some of his most iconic comics.

Dec. 20 to Mar 15. Included with general admission, $19.50. Art Gallery of Ontario, 317 Dundas, St. W., 416-979-6648, ago.net.

See a radiant retrospective of Art  Spiegelman's comic (and not-so-comic) art
House of Maus: the irreverent cartoonist Art  Spiegelman gets a radiant retrospective
See a radiant retrospective of Art  Spiegelman's comic (and not-so-comic) art
See a radiant retrospective of Art  Spiegelman's comic (and not-so-comic) art
See a radiant retrospective of Art  Spiegelman's comic (and not-so-comic) art
See a radiant retrospective of Art  Spiegelman's comic (and not-so-comic) art
See a radiant retrospective of Art  Spiegelman's comic (and not-so-comic) art

NEVER MISS A TORONTO LIFE STORY

Sign up for This City, our free newsletter about everything that matters right now in Toronto politics, sports, business, culture, society and more.

By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy.
You may unsubscribe at any time.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Advertisement
Advertisement

Big Stories

Dark Horse: Inside the fall of Eric Lamaze, Canada’s most famous equestrian
Deep Dives

Dark Horse: Inside the fall of Eric Lamaze, Canada’s most famous equestrian

Inside the Latest Issue

The February issue of Toronto Life features Scottie Barnes, the new face of the Raptors—and the team’s best chance of salvation. Plus, our obsessive coverage of everything that matters now in the city.