CALVIN AND HOBBES

New Release: A new exhibit catalog featuring 152 pages of original comic art and commentary by Bill Waterson was released on March 10th by Andrews & McMeel. Based on a 2014 retrospective at Ohio State University, Exploring Calvin and Hobbes also includes interviews, Watterson's original syndicate proposal page, and photographs of the artist's studio. Calvin and Hobbes ran from 1985 to 1995 and set a new standard for writing, art, and artist rights in the field of comic strips. More info at Bud's Art Books and Amazon. 

DARTH VADER PROJECT

Dov Kelemer and Jo Marks at DKE Toys created an interesting group exhibit about ten years ago. Choosing Darth Vader as a theme for a platform show, they procured 100 prop replicas of the Dark Lord's helmet and invited artists from around the world to contribute their customized designs. The group included many heroes from the Pop Surrealist/Lowbrow movement like Josh Agle (Shag), Gary Baseman, Tim Biskup, Ron English, Paul Frank, Jesse Hernandez, Sun-MinKim, David Horvath, Joe Ledbetter, Tokidoki, Ragnar, Secret Base, and Amanda Visell. The helmets traveled to eight exhibitions between 2007 and 2010. A full-color catalog is available at the project website. Learn more: The Vader Project, LA Weekly, Wired. Enjoy!

MOMA ON MUSIC

A new exhibit opened at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC in November that focuses on the aesthetic connections between music and visual art and design. The scope of the collection is quite impressive, spanning designs for sound equipment, live hall spaces, sheet music, commercial design and graphics, as well as instruments themselves. Making Music Modern: Design for Ear and Eye was curated by the Department of Architecture and Design and will be up through November 1, 2015. Official description from MOMA: "Music and design- art forms that share aesthetics of rhythm, tonality, harmony, interaction, and improvisation- have long had a close affinity, perhaps never more so than during the 20th century. Radical design and technological innovations, from the LP to the iPod and from the transistor radio to the Stratocaster, have profoundly altered our sense of how music can be performed, heard, distributed, and visualized. Avant-garde designers- among them Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Lilly Reich, Saul Bass, Jørn Utzon, and Daniel Libeskind- have pushed the boundaries of their design work in tandem with the music of their time. Drawn entirely from the Museum’s collection, Making Music Modern gathers designs for auditoriums, instruments, and equipment for listening to music, along with posters, record sleeves, sheet music, and animation. The exhibition examines alternative music cultures of the early 20th century, the rise of radio during the interwar period, how design shaped the “cool” aesthetic of midcentury jazz and hi-fidelity culture, and its role in countercultural music scenes from pop to punk, and later 20th-century design explorations at the intersection of art, technology, and perception." More details here. As a music fan and musician, I hope to make it to the exhibit. I image they included a number of graphic scores, which I'd love to see up close. And as a record collector, it must be thrilling to see the various designs for LP jackets and players. Promo image below: Radio by Hiroshi Ohchi, 1954. Ohchi (2008-1974) was a prominent designer and art director of IDEA magazine. Related posts: my visit to SFMOMA to see the Dieter Rams design show here, 8-Track Museum, Vintage Vinyl, London HMV.