NEW YORK, N.Y./NEWARK, NJ.- One of America’s great popular art forms is given its first major museum examination in the landmark, two-part exhibition, Masters of American Comics, on view simultaneously at The Jewish Museum in New York City and The Newark Museum in Newark, New Jersey from September 15, 2006 through January 28, 2007. By focusing on 14 of the most innovative and influential artists – whose work will be seen in comprehensive presentations including conceptual sketches, finished drawings, rare printers’ proofs, printed newspaper pages, comic books, and graphic novels – the exhibition will vividly convey how comics have developed into a quintessential component of American culture. Artists to be represented are: Winsor McCay, Lyonel Feininger, George Herriman, E.C. Segar, Frank King, Chester Gould, Milton Caniff, Charles M. Schulz, Will Eisner, Jack Kirby, Harvey Kurtzman, R. Crumb, Gary Panter and Chris Ware.

Nearly 600 objects will be exhibited by both institutions in a bright, colorful, and dynamic exhibition design to match the wealth of visual artistry on display. Comic strips from the first half of the 20th century will be shown at The Newark Museum, and comic books from the 1950s onward will be featured at The Jewish Museum. Unprecedented in its scope, Masters of American Comics provides understanding and insight into the medium of comics as an art form. The work will be organized chronologically to be on view at the same time in both museums. Masters of American Comics was jointly organized by the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA)

“These were artists who used a perhaps unexpectedly sophisticated visual language to address the social and political issues of their time,” said Mary Sue Sweeney Price, Director of The Newark Museum. “Their achievements as American artists are deserving of the renewed interest and scholarship embodied in this exhibit.”

Visitors will discover how comics have grappled with such critical issues as immigration, war, memory, social consciousness, and marginalization. In fact, according to Ruth Beesch, Deputy Director for Program at The Jewish Museum, “The history of comics is ultimately a history of the American 20th century, with the social and political development of this country reflected and examined in as intelligent and artistic a means as in any avenue of visual representation.”

At The Newark Museum, the exhibition will trace the origins of American newspaper comic strips through the influential work of such pioneers as Winsor McCay (Little Nemo in Slumberland), and George Herriman (Krazy Kat), who set the stage by defining the formal attributes of the genre in the early 1900s. Focusing on the great achievements of this new art form through the century’s first decades, The Newark Museum’s presentation also includes the groundbreaking later work of Lyonel Feininger (The Kin-der-Kids and Wee Willie Winkie’s World), E.C. Segar (Thimble Theatre), Frank King (Gasoline Alley), Chester Gould (Dick Tracy), Milton Caniff (Terry and the Pirates), and Charles M. Schulz (Peanuts).

At The Jewish Museum, the second part of the exhibition will focus on comic book artists working from the 1950s to the present day, from the early Golden Age to the rise of the independent comics movement. Particular attention is paid to such series as Will Eisner’s The Spirit and Jack Kirby’s Captain America and Fantastic Four, as well as to Harvey Kurtzman, whose MAD Magazine transformed the medium into one capable of great artistic expression and social commentary beginning in the early 1950s. By the mid-1960s, R. Crumb’s work in Zap Comix added a new level of personal expression and extended the significant role of independent and underground comic books and graphic novels. The medium continues to evolve today through the innovations of such artists as Gary Panter (Jimbo) and Chris Ware (Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth).

Comics serve as a mirror in which the central concerns of American life are portrayed by inventive artists who give us new ways of looking. Of the 14 comic art masters featured in the show, co-curator Brian Walker has noted, “These artists are constantly reinventing things. As soon as someone places them in a box, they’ll break out of it.”

Masters of American Comics was co-curated by independent scholars John Carlin and Brian Walker, and was coordinated by Hammer Museum Deputy Director of Collections and Director of the Gunwald Center Cynthia Burlingham and former Associate Curator at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Michael Darling. At The Jewish Museum, the exhibition is being coordinated by Alison Gass, Neubauer Family Foundation Curatorial Assistant, and at The Newark Museum, by Zette Emmons, Manager of Traveling Exhibitions.

A full schedule of public programs has been designed to complement the exhibition at The Jewish Museum and The Newark Museum. Members of both museums will receive reciprocal free admission during the exhibition’s run. Visitors to the Masters of American Comics exhibition at either museum will receive a discount coupon for $2 off admission to the other.

A fully illustrated catalogue, published by the Hammer Museum and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, in association with Yale University Press, New Haven and London, includes contributions on the individual artists by novelists, historians, critics, and artists, as well as a historical essay by co-curator John Carlin.

Masters of American Comics was jointly organized by the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, and The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA). The exhibition is made possible, in part, by the National Endowment for the Arts. The presentations at The Jewish Museum and The Newark Museum are supported through a leadership grant from the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts. Major support for The Jewish Museum’s presentation is provided by Jane and James Stern. Major support for The Newark Museum’s presentation is provided by Prudential Financial.