The Wnnipeg Art Gallery de-mothballs two comics-related exhibits from the 1970s. One is a small collection of Marvel Comics originals and production scraps and the other is an editorial cartoon exhibit. Both are part of the gallery’s permanent collection and are being showcased with newer works from Royal Art Lodge, etc.
Funny Papers
In the 1970s, The Winnipeg Art Gallery began an initiative to push the boundaries by asking the question “is this Art?” in relation to objects such as comic books, quilts, pinball machines(!), editorial cartoons, craft, and even photography. One of the first groundbreaking exhibitions of this period was The Structure of the Comic Book (1973) which sought to investigate the techniques of storytelling used by comic book artists with a secondary motive to address the debate between notions of high and low forms of art. An impressive and exhaustive exhibition, approximately 50 works were borrowed directly from Marvel Comics in New York City.
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Another exhibition that explored the illustration versus art debate was Canadian Political Cartoons in 1977. A particular focus of the exhibition dealt with the issue of Separatism supported by drawings from cartoonists across Canada. It was from this area that an important body of work by two significant editorial cartoonists was collected. Ranging in date from 1963 to 1977, the Gallery holds ten works by Peter Kuch (1917–1980), who worked for the Winnipeg Free Press, and eleven works by Duncan Macpherson (1924–1993), who worked for the Toronto Star.
