Comics Versus Art

by Bart Beaty

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442696273
Publisher:	University of Toronto Press
Publication date:	07/17/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

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

Table of Contents

Comics Arts World

Roy Lichtenstein's Tears: Ressentiment and Exclusion in the World of Pop Art

Searching for Artists in the Entertainment Empire

Cartoons as Masterpieces: An Essay on Illustrated Classics

Highbrow Comics and Lowbrow Art?: The Shifting Contexts of the Comics Art Object

On Junk, Investments and Junk Investments: The Evolution of Comic Book Collectibles

Crumbs from the Table: The Place of Comics in Museums

By Way of Conclusion: Chris Ware's Comics About Art

Endnotes

What People are Saying About This

Scott Bukatman

‘Comics Versus Art is an absolutely terrific, very impressive book. Bart Beaty has produced a striking institutional history of comics, focusing on their movement from a position of low culture and marginality to their new place of prominence. It’s a work of great sophistication, providing a broader, more nuanced sense of comics as a cultural form than we have previously understood. At the same time, Beaty explores these ideas with great clarity and focus in straightforward language.’

From the Publisher

‘Comics Versus Art is an absolutely terrific, very impressive book. Bart Beaty has produced a striking institutional history of comics, focusing on their movement from a position of low culture and marginality to their new place of prominence. It’s a work of great sophistication, providing a broader, more nuanced sense of comics as a cultural form than we have previously understood. At the same time, Beaty explores these ideas with great clarity and focus in straightforward language.’

Editorial Reviews

'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
"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
'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
'Comics Versus Art is an absolutely terrific, very impressive book. Bart Beaty has produced a striking institutional history of comics, focusing on their movement from a position of low culture and marginality to their new place of prominence. It's a work of great sophistication, providing a broader, more nuanced sense of comics as a cultural form than we have previously understood. At the same time, Beaty explores these ideas with great clarity and focus in straightforward language.'—Scott Bukatman, Department of Art and Art History, Stanford University

From the Publisher

‘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.

Canadian Literature 219, winter 2013 - Beverly Haun

“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.”

Quill & Quire - Ian Daffern

‘This solid, sound, intriguing book will set the discourse on art and comics for a considerable time. Essential. All readers.’

Choice Magazine vol 50:07:2013 - J.A. Lent