The Complete "Covers" Scans, Eighth Post, Nrs. 417a-447

 "Covers" Nrs. 417a-447

This is the eighth post here documenting my 500+ "Covers" artworks created from 2001 until 2023. These are paintings or drawings in oil, acrylic, gouache, and ink on paper, canvas or board in various sizes, often not far from letter size, but from half that up to a few feet /meters in size. They recognizably utilize the structure of comic-book covers, or Show-Card lettering posters, with title, bold lettering, price, date, numbering, image and so on. They have been usually exhibited in groups, as installations and as "footnotes" to my large painting-installations.

 

I began wishing to post one every couple days, thus the complete group would take me years. I was too busy to do that, so as part of my scanning of my archives in 2023 which have been donated to the Kantonsbibliothek in Appenzell AR Switzerland, I decided to simply post all 500-some in groups here in a small series of posts.

 

You can get an idea of the sort of concerns, purposefully over-determined, polysemic, multivalent planning, images, references, and word play that went into each one by reading he first 36 posts here, or the comments on my Facebook posts of the "Covers" works.(https://www.facebook.com/share/1PxS2QfphgenLbih/?) Many were made with textual brainstorming in collaboration with author Daniel F. Ammann, or playing on things I was reading, or things my wife said, and so on. Over the years, I made a few numbering mistakes, but also did a few variations of pieces, thus there are sometimes several with the same face-numbers, 1 – 500 and beyond.

 

This group is one of man sub-sets within the whole group, each made for very specific contexts and shows. This one is 'The History of Composition in Art in Abstract Comic "Covers".' It was made for an exhibition of abstract comics organized by artist, art historian and organizer Andrei Molotiu for a show in 2009-2010 in City University of New York James Gallery titled "Silent Pictures. Special thanks to Andrei and to curator Linda Norden who managed to find a spinner rack to display them in as I prefer. The show was inspired by Molotiu's excellent anthology, 'Abstract Comics' (Fantagraphics Books, 2009), which I was also in.

 

Now I am about 90% of the way through the whole group.