As its point of departure, Funny Cuts takes, as its point of departure, Pop art's revolutionary referencing of comics and concludes with the most current trends in contemporary art, reflecting in many diverse ways its dialogue with the commercial and trivial picture worlds of comics and cartoons. Pop art artists like Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein were ground-breaking in their provocative confrontation with high and low art using motifs and references from popular comics. In the 1970s, American comics dealt with taboo subjects like sexuality and violence--here, for the first time, the subversive potential and the psychological content of comic worlds were used creatively in in fine art. Within the context of the punk movement, Raymond Pettibon and Mike Kelley were inspired by comics through wall-length drawings that made use of the narrative element of comics on the border between visual art and literature. And internationally today, artists question political and social realities and their own identity through the mythological potential of comics and animations. Presented here are numerous images from roughly 100 artists that visually demonstrate the various ways in which comics have become a form of high art.
