Media@McGill is pleased to present "Culture on Mondays", an occasional series of lectures on popular media.
Join us for the first lecture in the series: From Highbrow Comics to Lowbrow Art: The Shifting Contexts of the Comics Art Object By Dr. Bart Beaty, University of Calgary. This is a public event.
Beaverbrook Seminar Room (230), 840 Dr. Penfield (Ferrier Building), McGill Campus
Using as a starting point the example of a vinyl doll depicting Gary Panter's comic book character "Jimbo", this paper examines the myriad intersections of the art world, the comics world and the world of vinyl toys to problematize presumed hierarchies of cultural value.
Specifically, I will trace the evolution of lowbrow painting from its roots in postwar and counter- cultural irony to its consolidation in a contemporary "cute brut" commercial aesthetic uniting the worlds of easel painting, comics, advertising, animation, and toy production. In so doing, I will offer a commentary on the ways that cultural objects move through various art worlds, and the way that these forms of circulation highlight the differential status of actors relative to cultural fields.
Bart Beaty is an Associate Professor of Media Studies at the University of Calgary. He is the author of several books, including Fredric Wertham and the Critique of Mass Culture (Mississippi, 2005), Canadian Television Today (Calgary, 2006) and Unpopular Culture (Toronto, 2007). His most recent book, David Cronenberg's A History of Violence, will be published this month by University of Toronto Press in the Canadian Cinema series that he co-edits with Will Straw (McGill). He writes regularly on the topic of European comic books for ComicsReporter.com