"Marginalia; Inside the Comics Art Collections" at the NMNM – Villa Sauber from 1 April to 5 September 2021From Thursday 1 April to Sunday 26 September 2021, Nouveau Musée National de Monaco - Villa Sauber
Presented at the NMNM-Villa Sauber from April 1 to September 5 2021, the exhibition "Marginalia. Inside the Comics Art Collections" is an exploration of comic book art, a young art born at the same time as film and psychoanalysis, and which has frequently opted for marginality over convention, humour over academicism and counter-culture over received wisdom…...
Built around rare loans from public and private collections, the exhibition offers a chance to rethink the relationship between comic books and their acceptance by institutions, or how a medium that has always been split between counter-culture and mass culture has entered the museum space without giving up its transgressive vocation or boosting its commoditisation.
Marginalia are the small drawings located in the margins of Medieval manuscripts. Often secular, sometimes droll, always fascinating, they form a dialogue with the texts that they illuminate, explain or criticise and can be seen as the origins of comic books, a combination of drawing and writing which blossomed in the 20th century.
Both newcomers to this art form and hardened comics fans will have the chance to discover - or perhaps rediscover - some well known graphic works and some brand new creations, selected by the curators Marie-Claude Beaud, Damien MacDonald and Stéphane Vacquier, with scenography by Berger&Berger designed to offer up a new perspective on the work of the artists exhibited.
Some of the heroes on show:
Barbarella – Batman – Bécassine – Betty Boop – Black Panther – Blake and Mortimer – Bugs Bunny – Corto Maltese – Daredevil – Donald Duck – Flash Gordon – Gaston Lagaffe – Marsupilami – Mickey Mouse – Popeye – Snoopy – Spirit – Spirou – Watchmen and plenty of other surprises....